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I got fucking drunk with Rory Sutherland at The Devonshire... here's what I learnt

I got fucking drunk with Rory Sutherland at The Devonshire... here's what I learnt

Dan Pope
November 14, 2025

A February Friday, unlike any other February Friday, in all my 32 years of Friday’s in February.

Waterloo Station. 10.43am.

Blistering and bone-rattlingly cold. Clotted-cream clouds swooned in with the slow grey seriousness of Navy Battle Ships.

My brain pickled in a stinky hangover.

The Bakerloo line train -- coughed - - chugged - - cranked - - to Piccadilly Circus.

Herds of commuters rushed - hurried - scuttled - scampered to 9-to-5s.

I ambled out of Piccadilly Circus’s mouth, jumped into Soho’s soul

Cruising to London’s most famous battle cruiser, The Devonshire.

Outside, a swelling hubbub of Thank-Fuck-It’s-Friday-ers.

George & Sally’s. Geordies & Scousers. Geo Political types & Bouncers.

As I walked closer to The Devonshire, a soft blush of Spring whispered through the Miserable Git Malaise.

Skies opened like split Burrata:: a gooey glittery sunshine and creamy blue:: blinding brightness ::: sparkle on the windows.

Spring, Springing.

The pub has a celestial effect on people, places and things.

If Carlsberg Did Lunch’s, They Probably Be…

Oisin Rogers - The Devonshire
Charlie Carrol - Flat Iron
Rory Sutherland - OGVILY & MATHER

My kinda four ball.

12.02pm. Dining Room upstairs.

a roaring grill billows. Flames fizz. Heat licks your cheeks a rosy glow.

Fleets of dishes swoon through the Dining Room like gastronomic spaceships.

Yummy clatter of knifes, forks and spoons and erupting conversation.

Starters

brace of Smoked Salmon on toast, brace of Scallops.
thrice of pints + a Gin & Tonic
quad of Red wine followed.

Rory sucked his vape and sucked his wine glass and sucked our attention with his raconteur wit.

“people from Hartlepool hung monkeys in the Napoleonic wars…”

“let me show you a video of Irish drones delivering coffee… how do we make this mass market” (more on this later)

Mains

Gargantuan slabs of steak arrive. Seared. Blackened. Landing on the snow-white clothed table. Underneath the space-invasion burnished surface hides a glowing rosé-at-sunset blushing meat.

Wild, Brutal, Magic.

Duck fat chips. Thunder-clapping crispy. Ferociously dunked in milky yellow bearnaise sauce, flecked specks of golf-course-green-parsley.

Dessert

Well, actually, pudding. Pudding and Dessert are two very different things.

Dessert is serious. Pudding is fun.

Dessert wears a Whoop. Pudding wears Uggs. Pudding Hugs.

The Devonshire is Pudding.

Sticky Toffee Pudding, chilling in a swamp of caramel sauce, the colour of cowboy leather at sunset, a perfect globe of vanilla ice cream.

a perfect Friday February lunch.

here’s what I learned

The Devonshire: 38 Run at Hard Rule

At The Devonshire’s inception.

Osh and Charlie wrote a list of 38 hard things to accomplish.

the 38 things were unimaginably hard.

so hard, most wouldn’t try.

Building fa custom built wood fire oven from scratch kinda hard.

Baking IN HOUSE bread and giving it out for FREE kinda hard.

Building an IN HOUSE butchery kinda hard.

The Devonshire is the most successful pub in the UK.

Why?

Osh and Charlie run at hard.

Feeling hard, right now?
Run harder at hard.
That’s where the magic is.

(+ there’s a cathartic feeling when you solve really hard problems).

Flat Iron If You Can’t Beat The System, Change The System

Seth Godin’s “On Strategy” Book talks about systems.

Having a basic grasp of “Systems Thinking” is vital in brand building.

A fish doesn’t know it’s in water.

Many of us don’t know we’re in a system.

Seth Godin says a System is like a river flowing one way down stream.

Changing the system by swimming upstream is nigh impossible.

Instead, dig a little ditch and create a slip-stream.

the slipstream is your little utopia, the change you seek to make.

Charlie Carrol is founder of Flat Iron.

Charlie UNDERSTOOD the system. He didn’t fight the system.

Charlie danced with it. Then changed it.

how?

Charlie removed the middle man… the butcher, and, went straight for the arbiter.

Charlie studied butchery. Discovered the Flat Iron was an unwanted piece of meat. Always discarded. Very cheap. Very delicious.

The result?

No Middle Man = Higher Margins
Finding the Flat Iron Steak = Higher Margins and Deliciousness
£10 Steak for All - making great steak accessible to everyone

trying to make change?

Understand you’re in a system.

Don’t fight the system.
Dance with the system.
Change the system.

Flat Iron The Peak End Rule - Daniel Khaneman

The Peak End Rule by Daniel Kahneman is glorious.

How an experience ends is more important than the beginning and middle.

At the end of your meal at Flat Iron, you receive a little cleaver.

Take the cleaver to the counter and receive a complimentary ice cream.

The Peak End Rule

You’re leaving in a great mood
You’ve most likely stolen the little cleaver = word of mouth marketing
You’ve had a human chat, connection with someone as you’ve left the restaurant

Never forget the peak end rule.

How do you end your investor meeting?
How do you end your buyers meeting?
How do you say bye to your customers?

Flat Iron Generosity + Rule of Reciprocity Rule

I believe generosity is the most underrated business tactic of all time.

at the beginning of your meal at Flat Iron an array of cold, icy fruity water and truffle salted popcorn awaits you.

setting peoples expectations as they sit down and arrive at a restaurant is incredibly important.

Generous at the beginning. Generous at the end = rule of reciprocity.

Why Don’t Hotels Have a Departure Lounge?

Rory discussed (at length): Why don’t hotels have a departure lounge?

Think about it, when you check out, you feel like a wandering, listless, rudderless mooching lemon.

Drag your case around the lobby like a truculent tardy toddler.

Rory’s question: why don’t hotels have a departure lounge? is a great example Charlie Munger’s Inversion Rule:

“How do we look at the problem from the other way round?”

When you arrive at hotel there’s a ceremony, probably get a fucking brownie and a tacky cocktail.

When you leave a hotel?

nothing happens.

create a designated “Departure Lounge” when people leave

Increase number of positive reviews
Increase spend on room i.e. people buying drinks or buying a club sarnie
Leverage the Peak End Rule (how experience ends> how experience starts)

always invert.
always look at problems the wrong way round.

Steal The Clothes of Other Categories: How do we make drone delivery mass market in Ireland ?

Rory posited another crazy question.

“how do you make drone delivery in Ireland mass market?”

how do we make weird niche ideas mass market?

Introducing…

The MAYA Principle “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”

humans need one foot in the weird & new and one foot in the normal & familiar

Rory suggested, attach blue lights to the drones (like ambulances) and get them to deliver blood.

Humans understand the context of Blue lights (ambulances, police car, fire engines) and it’s normal & familiar.

Humans understand the idea of using drones for a greater good i.e. delivering blood to sick patients.

we need to CHANGE CONTEXT to change the rules and behaviours of people.

we need to CHANGE CONTEXT for weirdness to dissipate and norms to enter.

Drones flying through the Irish sky delivering fucking Nespresso coffee capsules sounds mortifying.

Drones (with blue lights) flying through the sky delivering blood to your best mate’s Nana.

Yeah we can groove with that.

Change the context = delivering coffee to delivering blood
Steal Clothes of Other Categories = blue lights and ambulances

context shifting is literally a special effect of persuasion.

Popey xx

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