Today we’d like to introduce you to Henry Roberts.
Hi Henry, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I am an Australian-born restaurateur, entrepreneur and farmer. I moved to New York and founded Two Hands in 2014, opening a small café in Nolita inspired by Australia’s café culture. Over the following decade, I grew Two Hands into a multi-market hospitality group, with restaurants across New York, Texas, Tennessee, Colorado and Kansas City. Alongside hospitality, I own and operates Stockwood Farms in New York’s Hudson Valley, raising cattle, sheep and pigs that supply the restaurants and local customers. My work brings together hospitality, food, farming and design, with a focus on creating places rooted in community.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Opening and operating a restaurant business is definitely challenging. In the early days, it was very much learn as you go, so as you can imagine, there were plenty of mistakes made and opportunities missed. Six years into growing the business, we were in the middle of expanding to Austin, our first location outside of New York City, when COVID shut the entire industry down. Navigating the uncertainty of that period while trying to keep the existing business alive and continue our expansion was definitely one of the most challenging times of my career.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am the CEO of Two Hands, an Australian-inspired restaurant concept I founded in 2014, two years after moving to New York City from Sydney, Australia. We specialize in building community around food and beverage, bringing together a healthy lifestyle with a social, community-driven environment. What started as a small café in New York has grown well beyond what I initially imagined, and I’m incredibly proud to have seen the concept and the values behind it resonate with communities across the country.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Being an entrepreneur and starting a business from scratch is one of the biggest risks you can take, and I don’t believe you can achieve real success without taking risks along the way. Those risks can be calculated, though, and the more experience you gain, the better you become at knowing when to roll the dice. Signing a lease in Austin was a huge risk. We had just opened our fourth location in NYC and had no idea what it would take to operate in a new state, let alone open during the pandemic in 2020. That risk paid off—Austin became, and remains, one of our best-performing locations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.twohandshospitality.com
- Instagram: @twohandsrestaurant
