Hector’s is a neighbourhood wine bar on the corner of De Beauvoir, founded by Jimmy Stephenson inside a former plumbers, glaziers and gasworks J. Scott & Sons. Headed up by Stephenson, the crew at Hector’s are a rascalous bunch, serving natural wines from France, Italy, Spain and other regions in Europe alongside crisps, Serrano ham and seasonal dishes.

The crew at Hector’s is so easy going, it feels like an antidote to pretentious sommeliers and uptight wine bars. Was this a conscious decision when opening the location?

My background is working in pubs much more than working in fine dining although I’ve had my stints, so our approach to hospitality is more laid back naturally, but also an emphasis on being welcoming and creating a community. I think that’s how we’ve arrived with our service style at Hector’s, it’s not perfect, but it’s hopefully warm and openhearted.

How often do you get out to visit producers on their vineyards and how does this change your relationship with the wines at the shop?

We’re really lucky we get to visit winemakers out in Europe throughout the year. Usually, we’ll do some visits just before Spring as it’s a quieter time in the vineyard, and many of the wines from the previous year are falling into shape. Then, if we’re able to, we might do some visits in the Summer and then again to help out during harvest in the Autumn.

It’s so much easier to talk about and sell the wines after we’ve visited. You might get a deeper understanding of the way they make wine, how the wines age, how the vintages differ and why, what it's like in their part of the world, the kind of things you might eat with their wines.

A big part of selling wine is storytelling.

Do you champion wines from a specific region or is your stock relatively eclectic, what is the criteria for a wine or producer to make it on the list at Hector’s?

The wines we work with are predominantly natural wines from France, Italy, Spain and a handful of other regions within Europe in that order. We choose wines that we love and would drink and want to drink first and foremost, everything falls into place after that, we all share the buying, so there’s some variety in tastes in that sense. Our curiosity to try new things and open bottles while we’re working and talk about what we like and what we think of the wines always informs and evolves the selection. We also have an offsite cellar with a huge back catalogue of old and rare bottles that we’ve been collecting since before we opened, so we dip into that regularly so that not every wine is a current release.

How do you approach the menu and food at Hector’s, what kind of dishes are you looking to put on the menu?

We have a small but ever-changing menu on the go at Hector’s. Whilst most is a carousel of interesting cheese and charcuterie from around the British Isles and from mainland Europe, the staple will always be our Crisps & Serrano ham - a dish we had on holiday in Seville before we opened and fell in love with. Other than that, there will always be one dish that is led by the seasons, whether that’s a Summer salad or Spring vegetables or Winter tomatoes.

Who’s Hector?

Hector is a family name. It was my Grandad’s first name, it was my Dad’s middle name and it's my middle name too! There’s a very old photo of Hector with my dad, his sister and their mum behind the bar, I think from the 40s, that my cousin sent me after we opened the place.