Paul Campbell greets me warmly and guides me to a corner table, allowing the waitress to take our coffee order and then asking her to return with the breakfast menu. He is casually dressed: a white shirt with top buttons undone; dark jacket and dark but not matching trousers. He does not need to impress.
Campbell is the public face of Hill Capital Partners LLP. In fact, he is its only face, and its sole director. And yet over the past seven years he has carved out a particular and very useful niche for himself.
As he sips his flat white, I ask him to describe his role. “I find really interesting restaurant businesses to invest in early, businesses that have invariably been the creation of equally interesting individuals,” he says, “and then I support and help them as much as I can to expand.”