From salon to street food: Former CCC student opens new Tottenham restaurant

Silas Baiden, owner of Aunties Street Food, talked to us about his new restaurant near the college’s Tottenham campus.

Silas grew up in Tottenham and studied Art and Design and Hairdressing at Capital City College (CCC). While working in his mother’s salon, an opportunity to provide greater customer service led to a new business venture. His restaurant, Aunties Street Food, opened in November 2025, serving an array of West African dishes.

How did the restaurant come about?

The restaurant happened because of my mum’s hair salon, which she’s had for almost 25 years. After training to be a barber, I joined her in the salon and branched out into hairdressing. I realized that every customer sitting there for a long period of time wanted to eat. They’d ask me for recommendations, but the places I thought were amazing were so far away. I could see them having to wait a long time for delivery and getting frustrated. 

I thought it would be nice to offer some food. We started cooking on Fridays and Saturdays in the back of the salon, and the smell would drift through. We started by serving jollof rice, which is a dish that always provokes a lot of light-hearted debate between Nigerians and Ghanaians. There’s always a conversation about whose jollof is best, so they were quite willing to taste ours. 

Once we captured their attention with our jollof rice, we could throw other things into the mix, and Aunties Street Food is an extension of that. The salon is quite multi-cultural, and so is the restaurant. We’ve got aunties from all over – Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone – I just love letting people try different things. Black rice is our top seller in the restaurant, and it’s often because when people come in for jollof rice, I give them a little black rice in the corner to try –  and that makes food playful and keeps the conversation going. 

How would you describe your food?

Tasty and iconic. When you eat our food, you feel like you’re standing in your Auntie’s house or your mum’s house, trying something that they made. My favourite dish that we currently have is a green stew with cassava leaves from Sierra Leone, and the flavours in it are just so delicious.

What impact has your time at CCC had on your business?

My mum studied hairdressing at Capital City College when part of it was known as CONEL. To this day, she bangs on about her teacher, Mr Ortega, because he drummed it into her that you need to be on point in every aspect, not just hairdressing. I also learnt a lot about service on the hairdressing course I did, with my teacher Denise. You need to make sure your salon is clean, to check up on clients afterwards and not just assume everything is fine. I feel like that level of customer service is lacking these days. 

What’s important to you as a business owner?

Food and hair are quite important in the Black community, and there are a lot of negative views on lack of customer service in Black hairdressers or Black restaurants. My mum instilled in me the need to leave a good impression and give good customer service as well as being good at what you do. 

When someone comes in, you have to make them feel appreciated, make them feel comfortable, and then you can open up their mind. People want to spend money where they’re appreciated so you can’t take that for granted. We’ve only been open for one month, and we’ve got nearly 150 five-star reviews on Google.

Retention is also so important, as the retention rate is what will drive business, and so we have special offers and new dishes all the time.

What are the challenges that you face?

Managing the logistics, stock and staff can be a challenge. You have to try and make the right decisions with your team and have the right people behind you, as teamwork makes the dream work. 

What do you look for in your team?

You need to have people within your team who are organised, positive and ready to drive the business forward and improve every single day. It’s important to learn from mistakes, pivot where you can and listen to other people. My mum’s really good at customer service, so she’s often out front and knows everyone in Tottenham, so it’s great to work together.

I lead from the front and I’m not scared to muck in. If I see something that needs clearing up, I’ll grab a broom. There are no titles here – we all work for the same cause, and we’re making it a family of people that care about the brand.

What advice would you give to other people looking to start a new business venture?

I’ve never set up a restaurant before, but I know I’ve learned a lot from this. You have to be open-minded and you have to work hard, that means putting in the work and the research. It’s important to ask questions, listen to your team and just go with your gut sometimes as well. 

What’s next for you?

We’re excited to be working with a new delivery partner, and we’ve got loads of catering requests. We’re just trying to get the brand out there and do it justice. I have the salon and Aunties Street Food, and I feel like the restaurant is the one that I would allow to scale up because the salon is more close-knit. So it’s exciting, because we’re only just getting started, and we’ve got such good reviews – I feel blessed and hopeful.

If you’ve got a bright idea for a new venture but are unsure where to start, why not take a look at our Business and Professional Services Courses.

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