Amro
OUR GOODMAN FAMILY
Meet Amro, our Head Of Security at Goodman City who has been part of the Goodman Family for 14 years.
The fact that Goodman City has security: a) comes as a surprise to several people; and b) shows that Amro, the man who provides it, is very, very good at his job.
You may have seen Amro on your visits to Goodman City. Smartly dressed and well groomed, you may well have assumed he was a Goodman customer, about to enjoy a great steak and a fine night out. In fact, Amro is there to ensure that everybody else gets to enjoy a great steak and a fine night out, a role he’s been doing – discretely – for some
“I’ve been at Goodman for 13, 14 years now,” Amro says. “I’m from Egypt and came to London to follow-up my dream to be a boxer.”
A former Egyptian champion, Amro came to London with a plan to box in the Olympics for his country. “There were a lot of things going on in Egypt at the time and I was one of the guys who could fight in the Olympic 2008. I came here to train and I got opportunity to be a professional fighter, and I worked with a lot of professional fighters like Derek Chisoa, Lawrence Okolie, and Billy Joe Saunders.
During this time, the main barriers for Amro were the language and money. “I had to support myself,” he explains, “and while I was training for professional fights, I was working.” And, thanks to the boxing, he found work in security. “I worked in bars and clubs but then I started to do shifts in Goodman, and I started to love the environment here, the people.”
Amro has been with us for 14 years and is an integral part of ensuring the Goodman City family’s safety.
That swiftly led to an offer of a full-time job at Goodman “which I was so excited to get,” says Amro. “I was over the moon.”
Since then, Amro has built a lot of friendships with staff and customers alike. “We’ve shared a lot of nice moments over the years. I like to greet them, welcome them, although my priority is to make sure that everyone is safe – the staff, the customers – and to look after the venue.”
It also meant that, for his fights during this time he had a ready-made fan club. “All these people, the staff, they used to come to support me.” Well, you know what they say about the “Goodman Family,” right?
While training, Amro’s diet was strict but, as a treat, as he explains, “I used to come to Goodman to have a nice T-bone with mac and cheese and chips.” These days, he’d add the Prawn Tempura – “all my family love it, especially my wife” – would also consider a ribeye – “The Goodman cut is excellent, and I like the Australian” – and would add a dessert: “the cheesecake is my favourite.”
Credits
Interview by Neil Davey
Photography by Tom Bowles