BRAD STEVENS admits that going out for dinner is not always fun for his wife. The hospitality operator behind the Glasgow-headquartered Bar Soba Group is forever checking out the professional competition, scouring for kernels of ideas to give his rapidly-growing portfolio an edge over its rivals.

“She’d like me to face the wall!” quipped Mr Stevens over coffee in Bar Soba’s sprawling outlet in Glasgow’s Merchant City.

That Mr Stevens finds it difficult to switch off may make him a challenging dining companion. But his attention to detail has undoubtedly been germane to Bar Soba’s longevity over the last 18 years.

When Mr Stevens opened the first permanent Bar Soba in Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, in 1999 (he debuted the concept at a pop-up during the 1997 Edinburgh Festival Fringe), it was arguably the first to offer the type of cocktail masterclasses now ubiquitous across the licensed trade. Bringing in live vocalists and percussionists to play alongside DJs was among the other touches that have since been adopted so widely across the hospitality industry.

Mr Stevens remains very much an ideas magpie, emphasising the importance of keeping fresh the “three pillars” on which the Bar Soba chain is based: drinks, music and pan-Asian street food. Now the company is working to sharpen its standards as never before as it stands on the brink of significant expansion.

Bar Soba has three outlets in Glasgow, one in Edinburgh, and launched its first venue south of the Border when it opened in Leeds in April 2015. But it is poised to grow its portfolio to as many as 30 sites around the UK after securing heavyweight investment late last year from the Business Growth Fund, with Manchester, Belfast, Newcastle, Nottingham, Dundee and Aberdeen all on its radar. BGF invested £3m to acquire a 21 per cent stake in the company in December, providing the financial firepower to underpin Mr Stevens’ growth aspirations.

“We’ve now got funding in place to do maybe another seven units,” he said. “It’s sitting there now.”

The BGF made an initial approach to Mr Stevens in 2013/14, by which stage the operator had relinquished interests in units such as Saint Jude’s and The Local in Glasgow to focus on building the Soba brand. A deal did not materialise but several years later, after he had opened outlets in Byres Road, Glasgow, Hanover Street in Edinburgh, and in Leeds the outcome was different.

By then Mr Stevens had more than earned his stripes as an operator – the original Bar Soba has negotiated the vagaries thrown up by the intensity of trading in Glasgow city centre to increase its turnover every year since 1999. He admits, though, the BGF put him through his paces before it came on board as a minority shareholder.

Eighteen months’ of financial, legal and tax diligence were carried out, with hospitality veteran Mohan Mansigani, a former chief financial officer at Bella Italia owner Casual Dining Group, brought in by BGF to oversee the process. Mr Mansigani is now the group’s chairman.

“The great news for us was that, after all the diligence, he put his hand in the air and put his hand in his pocket, and became non-executive chairman,” Mr Stevens said.

“It was a great confidence booster for us that somebody had come in from a big, big company and thrown his hat in the ring for that position.”

Mr Stevens revealed private operator Kings Park Capital had also come to the table with an offer for a majority stake in the company, a deal that would have mean an exit for Mr Stevens. But though he liked the personalities at Kings Park, he said “BGF was a better fit”.

“It’s a five-year plan to get to 30 sites,” said Mr Stevens. Observing that while many hospitality firms have made the move from south to north, few have gone in the other direction, he added: “Who’s going north to south? It’s almost taking the crusade back down, William Wallace-style and basically move into the English market. which no one really has done.

“Of course, we want to continue what we are doing in Scotland, [though] there are probably not that many more places we can go in Scotland. We’re looking at Aberdeen and we will keep an eye on Dundee – there is a big student population.

“Our plan in the next 12 months from this point is to try and get three new units open if we can, and then we will build that up to five per year, if not more.”

But opening sites is not the only avenue through which Bar Soba can expand its footprint. Mr Stevens revealed plans are afoot to double the size of the company’s maiden outlet in Glasgow. The expansion will lift its capacity to about 7,000 sq ft across its ground floor and basement. “What we have always found with Mitchell Lane is it does not take that many people to fill it,” he said. “Because it is a small bar, we probably turn away 60 or 70 covers every Friday and Saturday. We want to make it a flagship because that is where we started out from.”

Bar Soba, which is on track to turn over more than £6 million this year, has about 130 staff. It expects to add 30 to 35 with each new site that opens. “It’s all about people for us now,” Mr Stevens said.

“We can’t grow to the size we want to grow [to] unless we are surrounded by great people. We have a great team and we are looking to build on that.”