Dude, where's my pub?

Grab a pot and pull up a stool for episode eight of the Pinnicast. This week, Leon and Michael are deep in the trenches, recounting the absolute head-spin of nearly losing the lease on a handshake deal. We cover everything from accidental demolition discoveries to the pleasant surprise of a sloped floor where a bench was supposed to go. The boys also tackle the online comments section when news breaks of the removal of live music, keeping it real about the brutal financial math of running a modern local. Plus, they reveal some legendary community ideas for the pub’s vintage PO boxes and a 50% "investor's discount" policy that’s still being debated over a few beers. 

Join us on this journey from idea to opening the doors to The Pinnacle.

Check out Michael's Pinnacle deck here. 

For more information on The Pinnacle, visit thepinnacle.melbourne

For more information on PAX, pax.melbourne 

Follow @pax.melbourne on social media.

Podcast produced by Posterboy Media.

PAX acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate. We pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging and to all First Nations People.

Chapters

• 0:00 Lease transfer stress
• 6:08 Receiving the keys and construction
• 12:12 Discovery of the stage ramp
• 23:42 Dealing with public media wrath
• 33:14 Finalising investor and staff policies

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

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This is the part where shit goes wrong. It's Thursday before the Sunday before, you know, we're meant to initially get into the pub to start works. Um with official handover to happen on Monday. And we're sitting here with no lease transfer. And although we had an agreement, sort of handshake agreement to get in there by the current owners. I think they're a bit spooked by the idea of us starting works and then if something doesn't occur, like the lease transfer, then us exiting and leaving a half-finished pub. Um so here we are. Uh this is where the stress kicks in and everyone around you says it's okay, it'll go through when it definitely might not go through. And I've got a venue manager Jamie starting on Monday, I've got painters starting on Monday, both internal and external, um, I've got a skip having for waste removal, um everything's pushing towards that Monday handover. And this is what happens when you're really organised and you have everything in line and you've got a short run way to get open from getting the keys, is that it only takes a couple of people to go slower than expected and they cook it. And they cook it for everyone else. So I'm sitting here trying to be real positive, but in the reality of it all, we might not get keys. And what do we end up with? We end up with having to pay people a wage to start work. We end up having to push the painters and other trades back, and they've got other jobs booked. So then a one-week delay turns into two or three pretty quickly, and all of a sudden you've lost three to four weeks of trade in what should be a pretty busy period. Um we've got media meant to go out today for launch next week, and now I'm walking at it and gonna have to pull it and wait. Uh again to landing traction on people discovering us and getting media any sort of media attention or yeah, any s any PR slows us down to launch the website, bookings and socials, and probably the podcast, this podcast. So that was a three-minute rant, but here we are. Um I hope that I'm doing another journal entry in a day's time, and hopefully we've got approval from the landlord, and we can get this thing going. Cho. What's up everyone? It's Leon here, and this is episode eight. Today we talk about getting the keys and getting our build on. We also talk about the infamous comments sections from all the media we got announcing the opening. Send us an email if you want any of the materials or documents that we talk about on the show, budget templates, project sheets, pitch decks, whatever. We're happy to share it if it makes your business better. Hello at Pax. Um, all right. Get crack in. We're in. Get into it. Where are we? Date wise, time-wise, like we're uh Friday, the 6th of Feb. Uh it's 2.53. We're five days, nearly five full days into the build of the pinnacle. Yeah. Um we also haven't recorded for a while. We haven't recorded for a bit, so we're doing a big jump from where we were talking theoretically about getting keys. Um, there'll be some things sliced into probably the last couple of episodes of me freaking out. Um trying to handover happen. Yeah, yeah. Um and now we fast forward to five days into having keys um to the pinnacle, which it's always a funny feeling. Like the night before um settlement, which was Sunday night. Man, I couldn't sleep. Really? Yeah, I went for a big run, I tried to like just absolutely tire myself out. What were you worried about? It's not worry, it's just like you're excited. You're excited, your your adrenaline's going, you've done all this work to get to this point. It's all the behind the scenes work, it's it's like training, right? It's like training for a big run. You do all this work, and then people just see the run you do. So to me, that's the pivotal day when you take keys, it's like, oh now the real work starts. Right now. You've done all this training. Got it. Um and that's that middle period's the build period, and then it's the open where you're kind of showing, showing what you've done. And I think for me, it's just the the apprehension of just being like, I think I've thought of everything. Yeah. Um probably not, whatever. But as long as the main stuff's okay. And well, w was any of that anxiousness validated now that you've spent five days building the giant? Uh man doing it. No, probably not. Like it's just all in in my head. Yeah. Essentially. And then Monday morning we got here, we'll we were aiming to get in by nine and then got pushed to nine thirty-ten. And we're just kind of waiting at the front, like waiting to go. What were you waiting for? The kit literally access. Yeah. And I had the painters waiting with us. Oh man. And literally we were standing there and a van rolled up next to us, tailgate whips open, and it's the placket guys doing the our posters. Uh. And literally, as we're standing there, we were filming them, put up our first posters about the reopening of the 18th. Yeah. And I was like, okay, that's amazing timing. How's that? Literally the minute to the minute of um getting the keys, they were just finishing it and leaving. Wow, okay. Um there's a bit of a pivotal time. Um yeah, get in there, we yeah, we've gotten in there really quickly. Like, we did the demolition of the stage on Monday, and the painters started doing patching on Monday, and then we've just rolled in from there. We've had every trade on site this week. So painters, um, joiners, electricians, um our tap services guy that sorted us out with an awesome keg fridge, um, which is gonna replace basically five kegs are gonna live in that fridge, which is just from a volume. Well, what did they have before? It was just all ambient. Oh, no way. Um, and had issues with um frothing and warming up too quick. So it basically just safeguards us from those high volume five beers that we will won't have an issue. Yeah, which is amazing. Um which I was worried about. We're still gonna have a heap of hot weather. Yeah. Uh while we're open, and those early uh weeks and months can be pretty busy, as you know. Um so that coupled with the heat can be a bit of a disaster. So I feel like that's a big win um coming out of this week. Yeah. Um and yeah, we've just been doing interviews with staff. Scott's been in cleaning the kitchen, getting the recruitment. Do you need to do we're pretty much there? Kitchen's done. Is it all new? Is it you're keeping anyone from the old team? No. Okay. So all new staff. And how many people do you need to hire on total? Like how many are gonna be on the roster? Uh about nine full timers. Nine full timers. Front and back. Front and less. That's less, sorry. It's about six full timers, front and back. Yep. And then the rest are part-time or casual. Okay. And then total staff will end up at about 15, 16. Okay, gotta bunch of cash people for front who'd be like, I'll do two shifts, I'll do three shifts. Gotta but like great people. But you gotta hire like 12 people. Yeah. Still. No, no, it's done. Oh, you've hired everyone. We're pretty like Jamie roster's ready. Jamie's pretty much got the people. Yeah. Which is I better get his contracts. Yeah, but press done. Um, just waiting on their timings. Okay. Um, we've got Riley, who's supervisor bartender. We're waiting on one more supervisor that didn't work out for full time, but Jamie's looked at the roster and basically worked out that we just need a part-time supervisor. Yeah, that person fell in our lap. Wow. Um, pretty good, pretty stoked to have Riley on the team. So good. How good is that? I didn't. Where's he been? He's been in Cordelia. Cordelia Cordelia? It's in R on Rath Down Street in Carlton. Okay. Um great place. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it just wasn't quite for him. Okay. I didn't expect to have someone of that caliber in a cocktail perspective. Yeah. He's very happy to be in a pub setting. Yeah. But it means all the cocktails that Nick Tessa has put together and actually get put into safe hands. It's not into like half into my hand, half into Jamie, yeah, whoever else. So he'll his service is so warm, so nice, so friendly. Yeah. And yeah. I mean, you look at the the teen as coming together for front, like between Jamie, Riley, um, Rosie. Another known entity, she's coming on uh a couple of shifts a week as well. Oh no way, really? She's just like lovely. Where's Rosie then? Uh I don't know where she's been since we worked with her. Okay. Um I'm not sure. But she's been studying and stuff and keen for a few shifts. So real cool. What a win front of house team. Yeah. Um so far. And I feel like just fits the m like what we're trying to do here from a community aspect. Yeah, people walk in and just be immediately feel at ease with those sort of people in the team. Yeah. Um yeah, it's pretty sweet. Great. Um so everyone's so everyone's recruited, the build's going pretty well, anything you're worried about? Um worries. There's just like the mountain of little jobs on top as you get into a build. Yeah. And my notes app is just like started with three things on Monday, and now it just gets added to and added. It's like, oh, we need a new toilet door. Oh, we need new hardware in the toilets, like a toilet roll holder and locks and sort of stuff. Um, we're putting a new sink in. We're doing dih, di- di- d-d-d. And suddenly you've got 12 things you need to do that all seemingly pretty straightforward. No, but then when you add up, you're like, oh, that's a butting strip, a paint shell trip, okay. Uh go grab something from secondhand shop. And then when you're doing them, it's like hang that frame and put blackboard paint on it. It's just it's 45 minutes gone. Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. So it's all those things, but next week that's when I'll be calling on uh the investors to come in. Working there. I was thinking we should do Friday Avo. Yeah. Before the Friday before we open. Yeah, yeah, totally. Just like three hours. Yeah. Honestly, by the next Friday, all we need to do is that. Yeah, be like zhuzging everything. Last few licks of paint, touch-ups. Yeah, perfect. Um, bit of a clean. Yeah. We'll be there. We'd pour in beers next Friday. Like I was saying to Jay, we should open next week and it's just a slight laugh. Like softy. Like, yeah, still it was soft, and it's just like But we if if we did a Friday working bee with all the investors and any mates that want to come along. Yeah, we could do a barbecue and do us other hearings and beers. Okay. Got heaps of beer to drink through, so yeah, okay. So what have been some pleasant surprises? Um I wouldn't say pleasant, but uh kind of pleasant. So when I ripped the stage out, yeah, um, the biggest surprise was that underneath the stage wasn't level. So it wasn't oh there's a ramp. Oh yeah. It goes to the front door. Yeah. And I was like, uh, as soon as I ripped up that first plank, yeah, and it was the first thing I did on Monday, I was like, oh no. Because I already had a bench seat measured to the joiners to build over the top of it. So you couldn't if that was built, you couldn't put the seat on the other side. Yeah, because it's being on the seat. Um and as soon as I saw it, I was like, oh no, it's like the first thing, and it says can of worms right away. Fuck. As I ripped it out, I realized it had these like two timber little decks either side, and then the ramp that goes to the new, you know, the new old front door. Um and it ends up being really nice entrance. Yeah. Um looks amazing, changes a few things. So luckily, my mate um Ryan from Andy Ryan, shout out, boys. Uh they hadn't started building that uh unit yet. Yeah, Jake. I called Ryan, I'm like, don't lie to me. Actually, no lie to me, tell me it's not because I know it's actually not we need to measure it again anyway. Uh-huh. I was like, oh, thank God, come measure it because it's changed. No, when sorry just dodged a bullet. I was so worried they'd built it. How much how much of an expensive mistake would that have been? Uh they would have been able to use it, but they would have had to shorten it. Oh, okay. And then that it's not the hard bit, the vinyl would have had to be changed. That'll cost us another 500 bucks to get changed. Okay. So that saved us money. Um and then yeah, we've ended up with this really nice entrance. It's quite unique. And then we've got these really nice low stools that I already bought because I knew there'd be something that they'd suit that will be either side. So like these little drinking stoops in. Um you'll be able to have drinks and snacks on there. Um, and then you walk into um actual seating. Epic. So yeah, it's like a scary moment, but then you're like, okay, we can work this out. Yeah, sure. Um, and but you can change the floor plan. Yeah. You don't have to worry, you don't have to go, oh my god, we have to put a whole new floor in to uh to meet the floor plan. It's just like, no, we need to find a different way around it. Yeah, for sure. Um I got an update for you. Yeah. Um the getting the getting this series sponsored. Oh yeah. Yeah. Which you would have heard by now. Yeah, in the previous episodes, but didn't get the sponsorship till now. Till now. Which is pretty phenomenal. It's pretty funny. So because if you think about it, like we went into this week going, all right, we had the poster boy media guys pretty much worded up. This has probably been the most disorganized client they've ever had. Sorry, bro. Yeah, sorry, you're right. And the rest of the team that are adversely affected by this. Like, we're we're so all over the show because it's like, okay, well, we've been umming and ring, we lost an episode, we found it again. Oh, did you find it? Yeah, we found it. Where was it? Um it was on the fucking no, it wasn't on any of the mics, it was on the desk. Oh, because we hit it. We did it on the desk, idiots. I know idiots. So we found it then adapted this again. We've got to do intros for every episode. We needed to do an an a new episode talking about the whole series. Yeah. We needed to get um we went, we didn't know if we were gonna get sponsorship, right? So it's like if we do get sponsored, we've got to get all the ads recorded. And I also fucking because I can't do anything simple, negotiated with the sponsor that hey, you're gonna sponsor it, but the only way we'll do it is if you also, as part of the deal, allow us to advertise for free a local business or a community group. Now we need the two adverts that I've got to record. Yeah, and I gotta find the businesses that want to do it. So what was funny though was that like on Monday when I started to put the word out to people that would want to sponsor it, right? I was like, man, this is getting a bit hairy because like we don't have many days to go, and we've got to release it on Monday. We've got to be we in seven days we've got to release it, and we'd we don't even have all the episodes recorded, let alone we don't even have one episode completely recorded. This sounds harder than the build. Yeah, I gotta say. It's been wild. And so then what happened was I ended up um what was so ironic was we got heat like on Monday. I sent the I sent it out to a bunch of people and it was crickets. Yeah. So by Tuesday, I'm like, oh man, I don't think this is gonna happen. Um, I had sent it out to a couple of people on Saturday that I was like, these aren't no bra like, this isn't conventionally who you would send it to, but it it's worth a shout because I just know a bit about their business. Didn't hear back, blasted it to the the hit list, wasn't hearing back. Um by Tuesday, I'm like, maybe we're just not gonna sponsor it. And then that way that that's in a in a way, I was quietly like fuck. Kind of easier, yeah. Don't have to fuck around with it. It's just that's cool. But I thought as well, it's just such a good opportunity, right? But then ironically, so Wednesday morning I spoke to Tim Keenan from Industry Kitchens. Yeah, who was funnily enough the first person I emailed. And the first person to get back to, yeah, yeah. Well, no, but he didn't get like he he actually I think I texted him or something and be like, Man, are you interested in this or not? And then he was like, Hey, I don't really know much about this, I'd love a chat. And then I forgot to call him. So then I call him on Wednesday morning, and then he's like, Yeah, I really want to do it, and we chatted it out, and it's like great. So he's on board, and I'm like, fucking awesome. And then I'm like, so yeah, thanks to Tim, like absolute legend, and didn't even hesitate at the community, you know, the community slot to put in there. Yeah. Um, but then I'm like, then I've just been charging to go, all right, man. Now I need to get all of this stuff scheduled, and I need to get intros recorded, I need to get the adverts recorded, I need to find the people like in the community groups that want an ad, then I need to record their ads, run it past them. Then we needed to do that intro episode, which I hit you up for was it yesterday? Um, and then we were like, Oh, that's not even gonna be an episode now, we'll just tack it on as an intro to the first one. So Roe has been unbelievable, right? Just like in the background. It's just super chill. It's all right, guys. Yeah, just give me this and I'll do it. I'll make it work. Yeah, it's been great. And so now we're here going, all right, let's get these last few episodes recorded. Yeah. Um, I'll do after we finish this, I'll do intros for everything. Because that was the other thing. I couldn't do the intros because I couldn't even remember what the bloody hell we'd said. So listen to everything, yeah. And then I also and then at the same time, Yoel and um Lauren were like, hurry up, motherfucker. What do we we need to plan social content? And I was like, and this is way harder than the building, yeah. But we've pulled it out, so we're good, right? So I've given Ro what he needs for Monday's release. So we'll have the advert, we've got we're doing a plug for scarf on that one. Um and then yeah, and then I'm just like now I've got I've still got a few crew, I just still got a few crew I need to find. Like, we're doing Scarf, we're doing um we've got to plug City Lada because like more people need to know about what they're doing, yeah. Um, like it's such a value add. And then local more local to that of hit up um the asylum seekers catering around the corner, like a sustainable printer. Um Van's skate coach who teaches skating in in regard to Himmer Plug. Yeah, so it'd be good to maybe hit up a footy club. So anyway, just gonna see how we go because it's all got to get done very, very fast. Um but yeah, feeling pretty good about it. Time of clicking now. Great, yeah. So Monday. So Monday's the first episode. Like in two days. Oh yeah, bro, yeah. 6 a.m. It's like a big hour opening week. Yeah, no, no. This episode of the Pinnacle Podcast is brought to you by Industry Kitchens. Now, if you don't know industry kitchens and you haven't yet met Tim Keenan, I'd strongly suggest you remedy that pretty quick. Especially if you actually need anything in the kitchen world. I'm talking catering equipment, any kitchen equipment, commercial refrigeration, dishwashers. I mean, these guys literally have everything right down to chemicals and stuff that you need on the weekly. Now, why I rave about these guys is because it's not just about getting the right price, right? Like where Tim adds a lot of value is he makes sure that you actually get the right product. Okay, and that adds a whole ton of value on top of the actual price as well. So the biggest difference I've experienced with these guys over the years is that Tim's a chef. Often, when you're dealing with sales reps in this sector, they might be really great salespeople and they've worked in sales for a long time, but they haven't actually worked in kitchens. So with Tim, you're getting someone who can bridge the gap between what you know about your product in your kitchen and what you might not know about opportunities in terms of equipment, even right down to sizes and dimensions and options. So pretty much anyone who consults Tim is going to save money, not just on equipment, but through just better efficiency and logistics. I've recommended Tim to a bunch of people over the years, and every single time it comes back with the most glowing endorsement. So if you need anything at all, highly recommend you find these guys and get in touch. Put them on your radar, and I promise you won't regret it. Thanks to Industry Kitchens. Um, you've been an amazing sponsor of the show. Okay, so what else, man? What about um publicity? Yeah. Yeah, media dropped. Did you expect it to be that big? Yeah, it's definitely I reckon the biggest drop I've had in. Really? Yeah. Wow. And it was only um one heart. Bigger than Reed? Uh Reed had a longer tail. Well, actually, I can't say what the tail of this will be. Yeah. But Reed had a really long tail. It got in every publication known to man. Yeah. It's crazy. Right through to when it went to print in things like um Gourmet Traveller, Quantas Magazine. I mean it just got the full gambit, like and just hit the nail on the head. Um and yeah, yeah, did awesome. Um, but for here, for the initial drop was bigger. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well considering it was just a broadsheet that dropped it initially, and then there was a few that came after, like In situ and Beat. Yeah. Um and now we've just had Food and Wine Festival drop. Amazing. Um in the EDM as well, uh, which is great. And then we'll be in the this podcast should be in the industry newsletter next week as well. Sick. Which is great. Were you were you prepared for the wrath? The wrath. The comments have been hot. I uh I was reading them next to Vicky the other night and I dropped a lot of swear words. She's like, you never uh not that I never swear, but it was like it was a lot. So were you upset? No, no, I was like funny upset. Yeah, okay. Because she's like, Why are you reading this before you go to bed? I was like, Oh no, but um this is fine. Yeah, like I'm so fine. Yeah, it's not keeping me up at night at all. Okay, cool. Because I know who we are, yeah. I know what we're trying to do here. Yeah, it's so yeah, it's like the the accusation of like squeezing the soul. I mean, I I don't know, I've got a lot of mixed feelings on this, so I've got to be careful what I say. Because when I started reading the comments, I was fighting every urge in my body to not go fight people in the honestly. I was like, I I thought of doing the same thing. Yeah, part of me was like wanting to just go in there and just rage bait some motherfuckers, but I was like, nah nah, it's just not appropriate. And but the truth is I just feel like it's just so misunderstood, right? Because ironically, so many of the people that are like, what's the pen you're gonna be without live music? They they weren't even coming here before it was a live music. Yeah, like yeah, there's a reason why financially it didn't work anymore. Exactly. And I'm the last person that wants to quote unquote kill live music. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I love live music, exactly. I but it just wasn't working, it wasn't working here. Well, the th the thing in my mind, right? There was people that would make comments about how you can't do it or you know, you're killing it, or something that said something like, Oh, it was working fine, why change it? Yeah, and it's like, do any of you realize that the owner was n struggling really bad? Yeah, right. Like he went on radio, he talked about the struggles, like, what do you want? Like a guy's gonna lose his house potentially, so that you can just play in a room to 20 people with your band every couple months. Like it's so it's so almost like selfish. Yeah, it's a total misunderstanding of the financial model of hospitality. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, which is weird because it's I feel like over the last year or so, a bit longer, it's been quite widely projected how fucked the industry is. So you'd think that people would understand. Yeah, but then when you bring the music element into women, it's like people forget that it's a hospitality venue first happens to have music. Totally, not the other way around. Well, but the thing is, for all of those people, in fairness, they haven't they've been using it as such. Exactly. And and that's not on them, right? That's on the that was a decision that the pub made to go down that road. So they're just using what was were the service that was being provided. So you can't really fault them for it, but absolutely no beef for using it. No, but just yeah, there's it wasn't sustainable, right? Like that's why he had to sell it, because you know, unfortunately, there weren't enough people coming in to use it in that way for it to be a viable business. Yeah. And so, you know, obviously, I don't know, I I get it, it's like musicians in Melbourne are pretty persecuted, you know. It's like the every few months it's like you got less and less options, and it's getting harder and harder. So I don't know, I guess we gotta wear the spray of that for sure. I'm fine with wearing it. Like, yeah, as I said before, like you know, I was swearing about it, but totally fine with it. It was like what other option is there for here? Yeah. Music continues and well it doesn't work, number one. Yeah. Well, why buy it then? The place shut down shuts down completely and nothing's here. Nothing's here, yeah. Do we just want apartments here? Yeah, yeah. Is that the play? Exactly, yeah. And everyone has a problem with apartment block. So it's like we have a chance of saving a great building for hospitality and for this inner community in in Pittsburgh North. Yeah. Um that's what we're here to do at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01: 25:54

Yeah.

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Um, and we're not gonna pretend like we're gonna do music to the level that what they did. The stage is out. Yes, there's a stage in the back, and we'll look to curate some stuff out of the way when we're ready. Yeah, we can do some cool things in the back. Yeah. Um, Tim, who's one of the investors and part of the PAX team, literally came to me yesterday. He's like, Oh, and he DJs as well. DJs are great places. So, oh, we should do a record fair every couple of months. Yeah, we'll do it in the pool table room, in the footy room. Um, and we'll put on like brunch, it'll be awesome. Yeah, cool. We can still be connected to the music industry through through these ways. For sure. Um I was I mean, one of the things I thought about last night was even trying to build, like maybe for the first three to six months, build a little fund that people in the bar can donate to and we'll use it to any of the bands that used to play here that can't play here anymore. We'll hook them up with like record like um sessions in a rehearsal studio or I don't know, something something like that, to just be like, yo, sorry bro, I had to do this, but yeah, you know, what can we do to help kind of vibe? I don't mind that. I mean the the the other irony of this whole thing is that like any of those people that like slayed us in the comments wouldn't there's no way they're listening to this. No. And if you are, shoot us. Yeah, thanks. So what so I don't know, anything else we want to say on that? Nah. Okay. I mean when we open, I reckon we're gonna get a bit of another little mini spray for people coming in. I reckon our socials will get hammered for a while. Socials will for a while. Yeah. Um like anytime we we post a photo of food, yeah, he'll be like, There goes the penny, yeah. Fucking soul's gone, Fitzroy's dead. Like it'll just be. The best comment, let's not get into so much, but the best comment was the guy that said um basically just put their MO was this like, I know what these this this type of uh these types are like and like commenting on the photo of us. It's like honestly, I don't want to fight people in the comment section except this person. Yeah, it's like fuck you, you don't know who we are. Just making stereotypical judgments. Totally in fairness, though, we're making stereotypical judgments about them too. Yeah, but I did I didn't comment on their fucking yeah, that's true. We're not calling them. I'm not looking at their photo and going, I'm gonna make a comment about this person. Yeah, true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not giving shit to their dan. Yeah, okay. Uh what else is there to go through? Any menu decisions, any products you want to talk about? Um, product wise, just locking down the rest of the beer list, which is good. Um, throwing, so we've got Bod Bodriggy uh has a line, Somigran has a line, cool, um Molly Rose, two meter tall, um we've got the non-elk beer from Bridge Road. Oh, sorry, do you know what I forgot to say? Speaking of social media and comments, yeah, I thought it was so funny that like while all of our press was getting some heat in it, yeah, which to be honest also wasn't a bad thing because the algorithm loves that shit. Yeah, okay, but even Scotty copped it. Did he did you see what it's saying? Scotty posted a photo of the dry store and just said, um, does anyone want all of this? Come and pick it up. I want to start fresh.

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Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:13

So, like, I think just get it out of here because I just want to start fresh. I don't even want to deal with it. And I was like, Yeah, cool. And and it wouldn't have taken long before someone said, Yeah, I'll come and grab it all. But there was just comments in there like, you need to do a business course to learn about how to run costs in a kitchen. And like people just started hammering it and be like, Why wouldn't you use it? Like, you obviously don't know how to cook because you can't I haven't even seen him yet, but I'm like, that was pretty funny. So good. I saw him this morning, he didn't say anything. Maybe he hasn't even checked it, who knows? Um, sorry, what were we saying? Professor Beers and Selfia pretty much locked in. Um, got Nick coming next week to go through the cocktails, which is exciting, sick. Um, when's all the like staff training and stuff? Uh it'll be start of the following week. Start of the week before we open. Okay. Um, and we'll be able to be cooking a bit from that. Cool. Today's community advertisement is brought to you by Industry Kitchens. Brave New Eco is a local architecture and interior design studio that has been designing homes and commercial fit-outs in Melbourne and Victoria for 15 years. Their responsive designs speak to the site, people, and the purpose, creating intimate, sustainable, functional environments that transform the way you live and work. Check out Brave New Eco's website at www.bravenew.com.au. And I'm gonna throw this last little bit in. I know a lot of you guys are out there in the North Victoria area with a fair bit of money that you want to throw at renovations. I urge you to do it sustainably. Hit these guys up. One thing, I should have mentioned this to you off air, but while I've got you out, um we had the first meeting of all the investors the other week. Yes, which was sick. Screw like really love that group, not just saying it because we're on air. They'll listen to it. Yeah. But one of the actions that came out of that, apart from setting up the WhatsApp group, was d figuring out the policy for who pays what. I thought we kind of figured it out, didn't we? Did we? What did we say? We wanted to have the same as staff. Yeah, okay. So whatever the staff is, the same. Which what is the staff? Like 50% of the staff. 50% off food? Oh, yeah. Okay, but blanket. And then if you're so and that so for so the policy is just for all of the stakeholders in the company. Yeah. And it's 50% off food, but you just pay for booze. Yeah. Because of all the reasons. Yeah. And then what if you got what if you rock in with six people? No, it's just for yourself. Okay, just for yourself. Yeah. What if you come in with one person? That is or it gets complicated. I think we should go to six. 50% off packs, six packs. Yep. So you're telling me one of these investors that is great and beautiful and listening to listening to us right now, they'll come in there with six packs. Yeah. And on a Friday night, taking up a table, and we'll do 50% off food. Yep. Hey Scott, if you're listening to this, this is going to greatly affect your food prices. No, okay, maybe um maybe I'm a bit off there, but I just thought in So other venues generally, and this is where it gets complicated. It's a four packs though, right? No, well some groups and venues do it as 50% off if it's just you and one other. Yep. Then it goes down the more people you bring. Okay. Stops. I mean, I could do a pretty easy spreadsheet to sit behind the bar. Yep. But do we really want to? No, I I just think it needs to there needs to be a few aspects to it. Because I was thinking in my understanding of this or my experience with this has always been like in a restaurant setting, it's like you get the discount up to a table of four.

unknown: 32:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:50

Okay. And anything more than that, there's no discount at all. Which is easy to understand. But in a restaurant, you're paying for table service and all this stuff. Like in a pub, I feel like you could go to six and it's not that big a deal. Because think about it, like, what are you gonna you're gonna like you got you and I both have five people in our family? So what is that gonna be? What are you gonna do? You're not gonna eat. We've got kids, uh, we're gonna eat fuck all anyway. Yeah, that's true. But I still think though that like well, I also think, yeah, I don't know, it's stuff something to consider because I think like whether it's two or three or four, we've just got to lock it down. Nearly all the investors have kids. Yeah. So why don't we do 50% off up to a four-packs? Yeah. Kids eat free. Mmm. My kids my eldest kid is about to become a teenager. You might massively. And Kate's kids are like adults. Fuck. And Van's gonna be like skating at Eddie Gardens most of the weeks and probably just come in and devour chips. Yeah, gone. No, you're right. Okay. 50% off six packs. Just can you just chat GPT this shit and figure out the optimal solution? I think we got it. Yeah, okay. 50% six packs. Can't be that hard. 50% six packs. Yeah. But but you did make a good point. What if it's like Friday night and it's heaving? Well, I've and this is what I've said in other organisations and businesses. I've said just common sense this is yeah, this is the policy, but common sense overrules everything. Yeah. Like you come in on a Friday night and it's heaving. Yeah, don't be a dickhead. Don't be an idiot. Yeah. Like maybe just pay full price. Yeah. Um but other other than that, there's no other real things that can stop that discount, I don't think. Yeah, fair. But I'd also gotta say, if we are fucking cranking and doing 30, 40% over fucking forecast target week in, week out, and we're just like, okay, this is a unicorn. Yeah. No one's gonna give a fuck if the owners are fucking getting a 50% discount when it's heavy. No, not at all. You're right. So again, common sense. Common sense? Yeah, okay. So common sense for us. Alright, that's good enough for me. Um wanna round this out? Yeah. Idea for the week. Yep. Um what was my last one? I was with Scotty, the Bunning Sausage Sizzle. Um remember the Bunning sausage sausage sizzle idea that we donate our steak night money to a cause. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Go back and listen to it. Yeah, yeah. Um, we got the uh so this week, right, I've got one for. Yeah. I already told Jamie about it. Oh no. It's already passed, she's already working on it. Well, this was my first idea, right? This was it's not even my idea, I just stole it from River Cottage, right? So River Cottage episode Q, my boy. Yeah, are you a fan? Have we how have we not talked about this? I know because I lived in London and worked in restaurants, obviously. I'd come home and the only thing on every weeknight was Q. Oh, he's the So I watched every episode on Channel 4. Man, as I went to sleep, I was like, this guy is so great. He's the best. Dude, Nevi has like fully emulated his whole vibe when it comes to food. It's so cool. How's this though? Jamie doesn't even know him. She's never heard of Ruby Cottage. I was like, hey, what? She's English. Yeah, I know. Never nearly want to call her in Ryan. Yeah. I just like call her out on air for this. In her defence, she's lived more places than outside of England. I know. Alright, that's not a defense because Hugh has penetrated the market on almost every economy globally. So Okay, what's worse? Jamie not knowing who Hugh Finley Will is. Yeah. Or Vicky not knowing what Seinfeld is. Oh, way worse, Vicky. Way totally right. Way worse. She didn't really make it to the UK. Yeah, you can't you can't compare River Cottage with fucking Seinfeld. I know, she didn't know about it. I was so upset. Didn't know about it. She's like, uh what are you talking about? She didn't really know about it. Maybe she just missed it. Over there in UK at the same time. Yeah. Friends. Yeah. Friends was like the thing. Ah, so wild. Just Seinfeld didn't make it. Yeah, that's weird. Really? I actually like that's that's a bit of an issue for me. It is, like, a bit. But why not? Now she's well acquainted. No. She hasn't watched not her vibe, man. Like how total different humour. See, I get a bit weird with that. I'm like, if someone's not a Seinfeld person, I'm like, ooh, that's it. That could be a deal breaker. It's a certain type of humour. Because you watched curb with me as well, which is like nah. Didn't like curb. No. Okay. Well, if you don't like Seinfeld, yeah. Yeah. Fucking funny. Anyway. So back back to that's fine. I didn't like sopranos. No one's ring at home.

SPEAKER_01: 37:30

I'm sick.

SPEAKER_00: 37:31

We're on a we're on a first floor. We're on a first floor level right now. I could throw him out of the fucking thing. Um okay, so listen, Rubicoy is one of the best episodes. So you might have obviously seen this episode for sure. Um do you remember the episode where Hugh goes out to this country pub in the middle of nowhere and they have the pudding club? 100%. How cool is that episode? And he goes against all the the people. Yeah, he puts he he makes a Clafuti. Yeah. Yeah. Remember this? We should do that. Pudding club pudding club, right? Like, how fucking dope would it be? But what I loved about their one in that episode was that they ran it like a Premier League. So they had rankings and placings, and so it was fully gamified, right? So my idea was we should do that. But then when um I was meeting you here day before last, yeah. Whatever that day was when you were like really late. Yeah. I got here at 8 15. That while I was uh waiting for you, I was hanging out with Jamie and we were just talking, and then I'm like, oh that the P.O. box situation, yeah. I'm like, what are we doing with that? And she's like, Oh, I don't know, like we're trying to think of something because I mean it screams whiskey club, yeah, but you can't really put bottles in there because it gets hot. Yeah. And I was like, what would be cool is if we were gonna run rankings for the pudding club, like we should use those slots to to do the rankings. But then I'm like, even better than that, that's gonna be where the footy tipping goes. But how? Well, if you sign up for the footy tipping con, you get a slot, yeah. You're you keep you keep your pen, you keep your fixture in there, and you come in every week and you get a pot while you fill it out, you put it back in, and then we correct it, and when you correct it, you put them back in according to rank.

SPEAKER_01: 39:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:22

I pride myself on coming up with things like this. Yeah, when when I when you find things in venues like the fucking P.O. boxes, yeah. It usually comes to me within minutes. That P.O. box, I was looking at it, I was like, it stumped me. Mainly thing is I or like I couldn't get past that it should be a waiter station, yeah, and like put condiments in the streets. That's what you were thinking, but then to do that would have required me to cut out and I would have got a huge grinder, yeah, it would have been sharp, and I would have had a sandbat. You would have been cooked. Yeah. The footy tipping's good. Yeah, I mean there's even a space to put their name above an actual thing above, yeah. Like this space. Isn't there a window above? Uh oh no, there isn't. Okay. Make it work. We can make it work. Talking to a brewery on Monday or Tuesday about sponsoring the footy tipping. Oh, boom. Bro, done. I feel like that'll be cool. I when I th when I mentioned that, I was like, this is like, you know, modesty aside, I'm like so stoked with this idea. This is like caretaker's cottage as I'm uh boys. If you're listening, yeah. You better come and join the tips. We'll see you tomorrow. I know, at least two of you try fast here to get home. Or get close to here. Alright. So no excuses. Yeah. All right. Love it. All right, are we done? We're perfect. Yeah, wrap it up. Nice. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to the Pinicast. We're super stoked to be bringing this series to you. So we hope you found it informative. We would love to hear from you. We'd love some feedback. Any thoughts you have around how we're going about it would be really, really welcome. So hit us up at hello at packs.melbourne and we will definitely be all ears and we'll respond. Lastly, just want to say a massive thanks again to industry kitchens, to posterboy media. Without them, none of this would be possible. So, yeah, massive, massive shout out. We're really looking forward to bringing you more. Cheers.