The PAX Hospitality Podcast
A podcast meant to be shared.
For the hospitality industry, created by the team at PAX.
The PAX Hospitality Podcast
Are we killing live music?
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In this penultimate episode of the Pinnicast, Leon and Michael are rinsed but racing toward opening night with only six days to go. The duo is joined by Loren to discuss all things marketing including the strategy behind rebranding a much-loved local venue. Loren provides a candid look at managing the fallout of removing a live music stage and the 'common-sense' logistics of reaching a local audience without a massive budget. Later, new Venue Manager Jaime McDonnell (formerly of Reed House) shares her transition from refined dining to pub culture, bringing insights from the London hospitality scene.
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.
What's up, packs and pennycast listeners? We're about to drop episode 9. That's right, tomorrow this series comes to an end. Which I'm low key stoked about because dropping an episode every day is really freaking hard. But that's what we do. Alright, so in this episode, we have a couple of guests, a few in fact, as one was pretty impromptu, as you'll hear later. Uh Lauren was in to talk about marketing. We get to meet the lovely Jamie, and you'll notice by now how rinsed me and Michael are. We're so tired at this point, we're ba we're barely coherent. Uh hope you enjoyed the episode. We'll see you again tomorrow to wrap up the series and open the doors. These are all recording, by the way, so we already started the podcast.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, we already had one.
SPEAKER_01:What are we talking about this week?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, we're six days out.
SPEAKER_01:There's so many dimensions to this timeline. Thursday.
SPEAKER_02:And we're opening next Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but people listening to this episode are gonna be it's gonna be Tuesday next week.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I know, but we're just not live recording, is it? It's not tuning into No. Maybe it's just me who's struggling with it. Yeah, I mean, I I get what I know what we mean, but yeah, we're we're six days out as we speak. Six days as six days out as we speak. How are you feeling, Michael? Cooked. Cooked. In a good way? No. I'm I'm getting to the point like of being over it. Okay. And I'll just end it open. Yeah. Really? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:You went turbo week one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Which is good.
SPEAKER_05:And you see the changes, the physical changes so quickly.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:But it's a bit more chipping away than it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_02:Well that's the thing, is what Luke was just saying. I was talking to him, and he was he was like, Yeah, you did we did so much week one that we're like there's ten big jobs to do, smashed it, and now it's like the fifty small jobs. Yeah. Um that just take ages. It's like, oh, touch up with the paint in the bathroom, put a new lock on the men's door. Oh, the women's needs to be done as well. I need to go buy another lock. You know, we clean up the vinyl and the strips all peeling, so I had to cut that back and suddenly you need to get a metal strip to pin to the floor so it just looks not shit. And just like 50 of those things.
SPEAKER_01:But aren't you glad to be at a stage where all the big jobs are done and you just focus on the little things as opposed to there's still some big things to do? Oh, 100%.
SPEAKER_02:And also like things out of the out of my control. Like waiting for my mates at Andy Ryan. You better be listening to this. Fucking making me sweat as usual to finish the the joinery. Um are they gonna do the desk for us upstairs? Ha good point. Hey guys, if you're listening to this, I'm gonna you're gonna do that, and it's you're doing at a cost. You've made me stress again. Um but there once like they've never they've never missed the date. Yeah, totally. As you said, Ryan's like, we've never missed the opening. I was like, I don't care, just don't stress me. Um so we'll get there, it'll be fine. And I mean when we started this project, I said to everyone in the team, we gotta be okay with opening. And there's like that one thing that we're like, no, that's a shame. But it'll happen within a week or two, and everything we set out to do will be done. Yeah. And we'll in six months, we won't even care, we won't even think about things. So that's the m headspace I'm trying to get into, yeah. As well as getting as much done as possible at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:Have you got any um big spanners or curveballs that you've experienced in the last week that you can share?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, biggest one was uh yesterday, Ray from Call designs, legend, um let me know that City Power came back finally. Um, and he's basically doing the painted sign out on the big wall on St. George's Road. And City Power said we have to wrap the power line that's coming into our building um because it's low voltage and so that cost is uh$400 or$600 just to do that to wrap it. And then we need a spotter, and a spotter is basically someone that stands at the bottom of the ladder and just looks at Ray all day painting. It's a very important role. Just in case he just in case Ray suddenly grows to ten foot tall and he can touch the power line. It's impossible to touch the power line. No, the spotter's at the bottom of the ladder to make sure the ladder doesn't. No, it's not for the no no, it's not for the ladder. Uh it's for the power. Oh, to make sure he touches the power. Yeah. What's he gonna how are you even gonna It's impossible for him to touch the power? Oh my god, okay. Like he would have to rise, uh, because he's gonna be in a a um scissor lift. Yeah, he would have to put it to the like the top and then drive in like and if you did that, what's the spotter gonna do? I know that's what I'm saying. It's a there's a ray, Ray's like, it's just overblown and ridiculous. Um and for for us, what does that mean? Spotter costs six hundred dollars a day, and even if you use him uh the spotter for a full day or half a day, it's still six hundred dollars. And Ray's like, it's gonna take two days. Can one of us just be the spotter? Hey, it's a credited thing. Uh you have you have to have a ticket uh to be a spotter. Um so what does that leave us? It leaves us with a two-week delay to get it done, minimum, plus the extra um pretty much two grand cost to do it. And I said in our group chat last night, I was like, I think we just reconsider it. Maybe we just wait, blah blah blah blah. But and literally driving down St. Georgia's Road this morning, getting here, and I just looked up at that wall and I was like, it is so dumb not to do it. It's got you gotta do it. Yeah. And then the the timing piece actually helps though in terms of cost because we won't be paying for it all until you know four weeks from now. When we've already been over for a few weeks, got some money in from trade, that makes me feel a bit better.
SPEAKER_01:Well also, there'll never be a a there'll never be a secondary space in any budget other than now. And what I mean by that is right now there's an allocation, right? Not quite as much as what it turns out to be, but it's an allocation. Yeah. And if we don't do it, right, one of two things happen, right? We open and then we're just super fucking busy, in which case we'll never do it. So we're like, why? We're cranking, like, just don't worry about it. Or we're super quiet, and then it's like it's too much money. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So this is where is that's why I looked at it. I was like, fuck, we just need to get it done. Totally sign that off, um, which will make me feel great that it's booked at least, or rebooked. Um so that's been the biggest one. Full path trading is another one I put in for to basically get our um trading line. But currently it's only like three tables, um, which I think is about four metres. And I've just put in to get it to twelve metres. Hey, you know where the bins are. Yeah, that's our property. Is that so that's redlined? It's not redlined. Uh we'd have to redline it. Gotcha. But it's like there's nowhere to put bins. Yeah, size. Um, but if we get the uh get it through, basically that means from door to door on St. George's Road, we can have bench eating all the way down. Um and it ends up being an extra sixteen packs or something.
SPEAKER_05:But that'll just be for drinking and smoking.
SPEAKER_02:For drinking and smoking, yeah. But I think just with straight frontage, and we don't have to put it out, but to have it'd be great. Um that's another thing, just waiting for for that to come back. Um but otherwise, like you said, it's the it's the 50 small tasks now to get us over the line to get us to opening. Um and the extra things that get thrown up every day that you're like, I didn't anticipate that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Sparky had to bail. Shit. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Um I've I would like to um steal some time here because I finally have um something I can talk about, which was derived from some manual labour that I was able to contribute to this project.
SPEAKER_02:The only manual labour you did today. FYI for everyone listening. We haven't touched on it. This is the first time Leon has picked up something in this place. Hey, but it has had a big impact, alright? Big impact. That office space is actually looking pretty good now. Have you been up there today?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it's not today, but it's massive.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, no, no, I've cleaned it out.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, I'll have a good look then.
SPEAKER_02:It's massive. It's ready for the pack stain to roll.
SPEAKER_01:Ready for the pack stain, yeah. Uh I feel like really good about that because I was like, I don't know. Well, even when I came in this morning, I was like, I can't be fucked in this.
SPEAKER_02:It could I'm gonna call it it could be the best office in Fitzroy, Fitzroy Norse. Because of the view, the view and just the shape of this building and how that office with windows right around it. So good. It's amazing. It really is. Um once we get the desk put in, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Once Andy arrived at the desk in, we'll be tracked. Um hey, so today is a little bit of a um I don't know, what's the word? We're moving away from our usual programme because we've got guests today. So you obviously heard Lauren already talking. Hello. And at some point you're gonna tag out and Jamie's gonna tag in. Yep. Um so that's gonna be cool. But I thought I would just do something really quickly and um drop my weekly idea now while Lauren's here.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um because I think precipitating well, it doesn't have anything to do directly with marketing. I think I just think I'd love to hear her opinion on it straight up. I'm a big fan of the big idea too. Yeah. What do you mean? I just loved it.
SPEAKER_02:He's doing this. Oh, you like the segment? I love it. He's doing this with you here because I know he needs a sec he needs a vote to overpower me. That's exactly I you think yes, you're real smart.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, I promise you, it's not about that. I just I just sensed she was a big fan of the segments. Okay, so um I've been thinking um because I'm I've got to be honest, I'm running out of ideas where you are. It's like I'd when I committed to this, I really didn't think it would be a thing. No, no, I've got lots of stuff, but um I'm thinking this week about still really just trying to anchor all of my thoughts via the community aspect. Yeah. And something that um I thought about lately was it was actually just on the back of when we were setting up the tables in here, you and Jamie and I was uh hanging around. Yeah. Um and I did move a couple of chairs. You did. Um, and when we did that, and I made a comment, right, which is like I like the space because there's room for prams.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it was like, oh, that just kind of feels right. And then I was kind of walking down the street and I was like, there are a lot of young families here. There's no two ways about it. Definitely. And there's a lot of young dads, right? And something that I did when I first became a dad, which I just did it by chance, and I when I think back, I'm like so fortunate that I did it. But I started the Fitzroy Fathers Pub. I remember this. Yeah, it was it just before I had a child, shattered I couldn't join. Yeah, right. So what it was it was really good. So we I think it was like um the first Monday of the month or something, we'd all meet at the steak night at the Gertrude Hotel. And while that was so good was because it's it's this thing that happens when you first become a dad, right? It's like you kind of, you know, it's not about you, right? It's about the baby, it's about mum, and it's so it should be. But you it's very easy to kind of go into orbit a little bit because you're dealing with a little bit of like existential dilemma. You're thinking about what's you know, it it's it's your your life doesn't completely change, right? Because it's like for if you're in most families, right? You're kind of just like you're going back to work, you kind of take on this role as like, okay, I'm gonna be this like provider, and you don't tend to even at the best of times, I think men don't do a great job of being vulnerable and talking about how they feel and whatnot. And I I mean, I felt for me, and definitely with a lot of guys I've spoken to that have become dads, that in that initial period, you do have questions and you do have things we want to talk about, but you don't feel it's your stage to do it, you know, and it's just this weird dynamic. And so when we were in that group, it was great because it was like, Oh, hang on, this is just we can just speak openly, right, with other dads, and you don't have to feel bad. And it was so good because there was dads in that group that were brand new, dads that were older, and what was really great about it, there was just absolutely no judgment, no nothing critical, and it was like you know, you know, they always say that you know, parenting is such a controversial topic and it can just go to hell in a handbag really quickly. That was not the experience we had, it was just like cool, it was really good for just a bit of solidarity and whatnot. And I was thinking like that would be a good thing to do here. Yeah, a little like Friday lunch club or yeah, yeah, or I think like doing it on night, like what we did it on the Monday night, like after dinner.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because it was like, okay, at that point the kids are all asleep.
SPEAKER_05:So you don't bring the kids with you.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no. It's just like a little dad support group where you can ask about, you know, what are the things that I should be thinking about, or yeah, you know, whatever questions you got, or I don't know, like it, no?
SPEAKER_05:I I I love it. It's uh it's a it's quite palma night Mondays, mate. Yay, yeah. It's a sweet notion, it's quite topical. I have a three-month-old and my partner Andy is taking a line share of primary care at the moment, and I know he's like, This sucks.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, you just you need an outlet. Yeah, like you know, like one of the best things that the best bit of bits of advice I got from that original Fizz Royal Faders group was someone told me how important it is to like, you know, I'll paint the picture right. This should happen to me almost every night. Get home, you know, do dinner and everything. And then we had this little thing going on where like I'd grab Nevi and I'd try to get him to sleep. And so Allie would just have that time to she would just go and have a shower and just fucking chill, and I'd always be able to get him to sleep, but it would always be while I'm on the couch and he'd be on me. And then it's like, don't fucking move. Yeah, it's like and then I'm pinned to the couch. Yeah, and I remember someone saying, like, when you're in those moments, you need something that you can do that's kind of that you can occupy yourself with that is a little bit selfish, yeah. You know, like don't work, don't check your emails, don't do that sort of shit. Just use the time, and you're getting this like double motion. And and so what I'd started to do was I bought a um a Nintendo Switch and started playing FIFA, yeah. And that was like the best thing ever, right? I'd lie down there and Nebby would be asleep with me, and I'd just like you know, win the Champions League with Arsenal. It was so good, and it was like, and and I was like, that was one of the best tips. Like that stuck with me that's a good one so long.
SPEAKER_02:Never thought about it that way, but I uh every child we've had switches three, I watched The Surprisors again. Yeah. So every time I'd be stuck in the car and go asleep, or on the sleep or whatever, laptop, there you go, headphones in, yeah, watch the soprano.
SPEAKER_01:See, I feel like new dads need to be told this, to hear this. You need to know that you've got the license to do that. And it's uh it's not like uh you're being ungrateful or you're taking the piss. It's like, no, you're that's how you provide yourself with the self-care you need to show up in the right way. It's just logistically how to do it. You know what I was thinking would work logistically is like we'll just be like, you know what? That's a thing that we're gonna do. Whoever shows up shows up, and I'll just make sure I'm here every Monday night. And if people come, we can just sit around and I'll just preach about being a dad. So it's like I'm posted.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it's like why yeah, why are they coming here other than us saying we're a good place to do that?
SPEAKER_02:We'd kind of need to offer them something that makes them you can't say, Oh, we're all about the community, and then do nothing community-oriented other than open the door.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, it's so well.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, also though, I think if we even just get half the freaking ideas we've talked about on this podcast, yeah, it will be molt vinegar.
SPEAKER_02:The bottles the bolt bottles are already purchased, mate. They're coming. Are they on their way? They're on their way.
SPEAKER_01: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 and 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. Um, all right, let's talk about marketing, Lauren. Okay, what have you got for us?
SPEAKER_05:Okay, so uh what was the turnaround time that we had from getting the pub, buying the pub, eight weeks to open?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_05:Which I which in in marketing sense is fine. Like in hospitality, you don't really need uh a huge amount of lead time to get the word out there unless you're thinking you're gonna land in some glossy in-flat mags, which I don't think we're really punching for. Um what we spoke about in the early days was we just need to make sure that locals are aware that things are changing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Uh, and how do we do that? So the the easiest mechanism for that was the three-foot posters uh on the outside of the buildings.
SPEAKER_02:Which literally went up as I was waiting, you'd receive the key for the first time. Yeah. The posters were going up was like, this is amazing.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. We're lucky in that we've got that real estate on the side of the building. It's managed by Placett. They've been awesome to deal with. So we've got uh huge signage saying reopening the 18. Because this is such a much-loved venue in the in the iter m couple of iterations that it's been, it was a it was more of an interesting approach to think about marketing than say taking over a shit hub or taking over a closed business or opening a brand new business. Because you've already got this following and this audience, and how do we reach them? So um looking at our kind of social media strategy a little bit differently, needing to be quite respectful of the fact that a big part of the following recently were were people who were into the live music, and that's something that we're taking away. And I mean, we've spoken about it at length every day, trying to address it.
SPEAKER_01:We talked about it on the podcast last week. Oh, did you? I mean, like whenever we which hasn't come out yet. Which hasn't been an answer. So I haven't listened to it. Yeah. Okay, cool. So you but no, but I mean I don't I don't I wouldn't mind maybe just a bit of an update there a little bit because what we talked about I think we did a pretty reasonable job of discussing it pretty respectfully. Yeah. And I think since then it hasn't necessarily enabled you to just be chill about it. I think it's kind of made it itch harder. Yeah. But I don't know, it's like I've felt for like my contention is that like it's just a really no, uh it's it's it's so hard to talk about. Say what you want to say. Yeah, say what you want to say. From the minute it started happening, I just wanted to jump in the comments and start fighting people.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because I just wanted to be like logical and be like, guys, do you realize like we are not killing live music?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_01:It's it's the band that you're in that's killing live music.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, you can't.
SPEAKER_01:But it's true, right? It is like that industry is not sustainable, it's not working, right? And if okay, this is a harsh comment, but if the talent level was better, then maybe they would be in a different situation. As in this business, no, no, the music in general.
SPEAKER_05:Yes. Uh, I think look, let's talk about this.
SPEAKER_02:So Leo wanted when people came in and were slandering me or us, yeah. I wanted to write, if your band was better, maybe you wouldn't.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, of course. It's like No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no. Say the for we don't say that. Let's not leave this there, because that's not what that's not my only point on it. All I'm saying is that we're not the ones that are killing live music, right? We are just representing the changing of a chapter for a good reason.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it's because we want this building to actually exist in its current format.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And the thing that was preventing that from happening was the fact that they were trying to do live music. And if though if all those people that have can been really vocal, right, on social media, if they themselves had been turning up frequently, yeah, this would not be a problem.
SPEAKER_05:But yeah, that all relies on just a bit of logic to people who are pretty uh, you know, hurt uh emotional about it, right? So if I think about the audience, so we acquired the Instagram account, which is which is something that doesn't normally happen in a business purchase, right? So we have 5,000 people who follow the penny because of that live music, and we're posting things now. About the fact that things are changing. So naturally, those people have something to say about it. Now, there's still a community. There are and out of the 5,000 people, maybe 10 people, you know, wanted to have a go at us because we've ripped the stage out. And you know, I get it. Like but the but the rest of those people that still love live music are still part of our community that we're sure to.
SPEAKER_01:And the look, the reason why I didn't want to, like there was a part of me that was going, our strategy should be that we go aggressively into the comics and we argue with people and we fight and we and we get our point across. But why I didn't obviously push for that is because A, it's just pointlessly antagonistic. And it's like it's we're not talking about the logic is not the issue here. Yeah. It's the emotion.
SPEAKER_05:It's the emotion.
SPEAKER_01:And you have to respect that.
SPEAKER_05:Totally.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so so I get it, you know, but it is it's hard when it's a personal shot at you, right? Like someone um reposted a video of Michael and was like, what do you say? Like Gronks. Uh cashed up, cashed up Gronk. You know, and it's like, okay, that's cashed up, but it's also like you know, when your kids are having a tantrum and and calling you, you know, bad shit, you don't take it on board.
SPEAKER_05:You just move on because they have, you know, they put it out there. They're not they're not waiting for our no, we're not protesting out the front.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_05:This is shit. Uh this sucks. It's like, yeah, it does suck. It sucks that live music in this country is shit.
SPEAKER_01:That's what I'm getting at. That's that like that's the biggest problem, is that there's there's not enough support, you know, from the governing bodies and in the education systems and whatnot to be able to really nurture and support the talent. Yeah. And so as a result, you've just got people that are like, man, we don't have the ability to actually, you know, really sustain this market through just pure artistic integrity because the pressures of everything else are so difficult.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it sucks that it is like that because I, you know, grew up in Melbourne at a time where that wasn't a problem and it was the love music scene was one of the best things about the city. And I was in it managing bands and stuff, and it was fucking amazing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But now, you know, the fact that we're in this position that we're in, it is really sad. And I just think that's again, while it's been harsh to sort of read the comments and see some of the splashback, I get it. And we have to, like we said, respect that emotional level that it's at. And I think if there's things that we can do on the back of it to honour, you know, what that period was for a lot of people, then we should look into that, you know. Like one of the things I was saying is we should start a little bit of a fund, you know, and be like, okay, maybe we can donate money to some of the bands that don't get to play here anymore in the way of like rehearsal studio vouchers or something.
SPEAKER_05:And we've got you know, we've got that stage out the back that's gonna be we'd love to activate that. There's yeah, there's open mics. Yeah, without I think it's I think what the the good play in terms of how we've come at this is not pretending like we're going to keep the um not pretending like we're gonna keep the live music, which I just feel like a lot of operators if that would have been the easier thing to do is go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah in our press roulette or whatever. It's yeah, we're we'll consider it all like it's stay tuned. It's like no no, we've ripped the stage out because this venue is tiny and we can't have a 20-seat pub with a stage that we yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So you know, uh I'll go a step further than that and and say, like, in the last week I have had not just the comments, but some people have actually hit me directly in my DMs or text me and said, like, hey, you know, it kind of sucks that the live music, because these are actual musos related to muses or whatever, and that has not been a difficult conversation.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I've just been like, hey man, I get it. You know, it really does suck. I would I I wish it wasn't the case, but the fact is that stage and that business decision you know to try to make this a live music venue was was effectively something that was sending the last owner broke.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And so we can't, you know, like what do you want us to do? Yeah, and and it wasn't like, oh, but what about it? They were just like, yeah, hey, I get it. Yeah, fair enough.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I just think the most the probably the loudest people in the comments probably just haven't considered it from that angle.
SPEAKER_05:Nah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, so anyway, is what it is.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I mean, we yeah. Does that is that really a marketing topic? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I think so. I mean it's comms, right?
SPEAKER_05:It's comms. We're trying to trying to handle it. I mean, we addressed it in the outreach that we did to media, um, which happened last week and a few people covered it, which was really helpful. Six days out, now we're needing to balance how do we get the word out there in the press with no images, or so we're kind of using our social media channels to what are you most worried about, Lauren?
SPEAKER_01:Like on obviously on Wednesday, yeah, you know, the door's open. Yeah. And if there's just a freaking line out the door an hour out, yeah, then you'd be able to look at that on an individual level and go, great, all this work that I've done today, it has been successful.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm not I'm not saying it's pinned on that metric, but Well, because it's definitely not gonna be it. No, but but what what what would you be most nervous about, you know, um as a barrier to that happening, or to at least it just being really busy on the first night.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, uh look, I don't imagine we will be really busy for that first week because because of the way that um any kind of media is gonna land, my worry would be four weeks from now, okay, if we if if the perception is still what's happening there, or that or our state night hasn't i isn't busy, or that that would be my fear.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Because every all the work that I do in the lead up has is for is for a really extended period of time. It's not just for the opening, it's not just for a launch party, it's not just for like the first broadsheet article. No, it's it's how do we get this message out?
SPEAKER_02:It's sustained messaging. Yeah. It's like there's always something not always something, but you've got a progression of communication rather than the classic dump all at the start.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And then, as you say, three or four months, you're like, ugh, yeah. We haven't been spoken about since open. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And you'll have all these media outlets clam clamoring over the top of each other to try and be the first. The first means nothing to us. Yeah. It means nothing. And there's something that really frustrates me about that with the with the food media. I get it, they've got publications to sell, advertising space to sell. Yeah. So being first is is important to them. But for us, it's like we need to be busy. We need to be busy for a long time. So if you're all just climbing over each other to get the article out on day one and then don't support us later, that sucks. It sucks. So I find being up front with that the best approach with media.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was gonna say though, like for you, you've obviously been building and working on and implementing a strategy to ensure that in four weeks' time, Steak Night is busy. Yeah. Yeah. And are there any parts of that strategy that are you feel are a little underdone, or is anything keeping you up at night?
SPEAKER_05:Is there any Oh, there's a lot of shit I need to do to get them sorted.
SPEAKER_01:So What are they?
SPEAKER_05:Photo photos of dishes, right? It sounds so basic, but if you don't have a budget, you don't have a photographer, you've got a chef that's absolutely not available or killing himself, but then you expect to have all these pieces drop.
SPEAKER_01:Like Do we have a photographer?
SPEAKER_05:We yeah, we've got Barney's sisters pulling in a favour out. So um which is awesome. Uh but if you don't have that, it's like, okay, what can we do on social then? Because if we if if these publications don't have decent photography, they're not gonna run anything about you. Um don't expect them to run anything unless you give them everything they need in a bow. Yeah. Um Yeah. What else am I doing?
SPEAKER_01:Well, and what do you what more what are you worried about not happening on time that could have an impact on trade in four weeks?
SPEAKER_05:I think the the reach out to the locals is something that initially I wanted to do first beyond any other type of outreach that we did. But I've just found that really difficult to stitch together in the midst of everything else that needs to happen and do it in a way that just doesn't feel like I'm printing a flyer and chucking it a little bo in a letterbox and hoping for the best. Sure. So instead, post-open will be looking at a locals program, okay, uh, a loyalty program, uh some sort of like raffle or a different way to in engage the locals and do it after we've opened and after all that press is out there.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Um that's a pretty good contingency.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah, I hope, I hope so. Um that's about it.
SPEAKER_01:All right, just give us uh one thing that you're excited about from a marketing perspective, something that you've done that's gone well, that you're like, yep, this is gonna be a win for us.
SPEAKER_05:I'm I'm I'm stoked with the penny podcast socks social cons to I think Yolanda, who who's a gun, has done a great job at documenting the Renault. And she would like a lot more to work with in terms of content, and she's really just had Michael running around with a hammer with a hammer.
SPEAKER_02:Um every day is like, what's happening today? I'm like, I don't know, same as yesterday.
SPEAKER_05:But I think she's captured it really well, and you know, she's our she's our Gen Z. She keeps us in check to go. People who have come from restaurant backgrounds like you and I, Michael. It's like we do like things maybe with a little bit more polish, and she she's keeping it real. And uh the proof is in the reach of those. So I remember.
SPEAKER_01:It's a pity she wasn't here this morning when I was cleaning up the office. No, yeah, that would have been great content. Today's community advertisement is brought to you by Industry Kitchens. Cenito might have the most unique and awesome hospitality experience in Melbourne. It's iconic and it's the sort of place you beeline for when you have friends in from out of town. But it's also the sort of place that their regulars are fiercely loyal about. Sante and Carolina are incredible people and incredible operators, and it's a pleasure to give them a little shout out on this show. If you're in Fitzroy and you haven't been to Cenito, then all I have to say to you is siempre te llevas al gato al agua.
SPEAKER_05:All right, how you chopping Jamie in?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, totally. Hey Jamie, you want to come and jump in here? I know, I know how badly you do. She's fair square up. Just clip, yeah, just give it a mic. Don't not worry about any of the buttons. Just garlic. No. Of course not. I just have no idea how long we've actually been recording for. Yeah, so thankfully you don't have to be on here. Yeah. Um, hey, well, welcome to the business and to the podcast.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01:Um, you've kind of had the amazing privilege of being able to ride Shotgun with the great Michael Bescheta. Can you tell us not the good things he's done? Oh, you tell us the surprising things that you're.
SPEAKER_02:This is why I said I don't edit. I shouldn't be on this episode because she could have gone ham, but now I'm in this episode. She's not gonna say as much as she would. She's fine, don't you?
SPEAKER_04:I I don't know. Michael surprised me a lot by I mean uh just super soup hands-on. Obviously, I've worked with Michael kind of a little bit before. Um, but he's so, so hands-on. And we came in on Monday morning.
SPEAKER_02:So no, no, definitely not handsome.
SPEAKER_04:We came in on Monday morning and he I said hello and he kind of like couldn't move his whole body without his head without moving his whole body. I was like, what's happening? He was like, Oh, I pulled it link. And then, you know, he just spent the day trying to put up all the pictures and just wouldn't take any help. So I'm surprised, I've never seen him work so much.
SPEAKER_01:You're gonna give me a bit more debt. Where have you observed him being either unnecessarily stressed or nervous in the last week?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, oh, he had a bit of a fit yesterday.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, this is what I want to know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean if you saw that if you saw the tables, they're not tables, they are stools from IKEA. If you saw them, you'd also I didn't buy them, they were here. They were they were here. I was trying to not try trying to spend too much money, but um, they were meant to be for the little nice seat seats near the door when you walk in at the reception, and they're hideous. And Yolanda and I told him, and he threw it. He threw it across the room.
SPEAKER_02:I hate it was a joke. I didn't like I was angry, but the throw was like a joke there. I threw it, the door was open to the street, and I checked if anyone was walking past, and I threw it out.
SPEAKER_04:And then he picked them both up and was like, I'm taking my taking my stalls and taking them going.
SPEAKER_02:So where are they now? They're out of the hallway. And honestly, what Lauren said before about Yolanda keeping us in check about not being too colished, I got the opposite. Because I was like, these are like real, like you're a pee, you sit down, you have a little spot to put the beer on.
SPEAKER_04:So small.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect.
SPEAKER_04:You're only meant to fit two pints sort of well the idea of varnishing or like darkening, anyways, anyway. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that is a great story. I'm so glad I asked you about that was yesterday. Um we're just recording here, Ray. Sorry. Sorry. So that was Ray from Call of Science. Legend legend. If you ever need signage done for a restaurant, you can ask you. So yeah, yeah, ask me. This is the nature of the podcast.
SPEAKER_00:I want to see if you put your finger on a colour that we agreed upon. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um this is great podcasting, but everyone home, we're looking at colours for the outside wall. I thought we were going marine. No, I'm joking. Uh I feel like it's saladite is the grey, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I don't think.
SPEAKER_02:But you're thinking the green? Oh, you got the formula? Yeah. I think that's probably closest. Green lily or Sussex. Maybe pale Ivy.
SPEAKER_00:You're one of those quick disease to make a legend.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_00:I'll do a bit. Okay. So we reckoned um it was more than that one.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah. I feel you know, above the sign.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. And that's why. And what I was doing is looking at this picture. Yeah. So I held it up against that picture. See that in this light, that only comes into play. Yeah. But see that one?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Seed sprout.
SPEAKER_02:Seed sprout.
unknown:Alright.
SPEAKER_02:Seed sprout. Thanks, right.
SPEAKER_00:Just is that a pen?
SPEAKER_02:No, it's not, it's a fake pen. It's a fake.
SPEAKER_04:Michael doesn't have real pen. That is that's too old school.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Okay, that was actually a really good little thing to happen there because this goes back to our branding episode. Yeah. Where I'm like, I I can't even tell you any different colours. Serious says that. It's like I'll never notice that. But I'm so glad you guys are having it. Now that we've talked about that branding episode where it's like, yeah, people, there's two percent of the people that will really notice that shit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I might not be one of them, but at least because you guys are having those discussions, we're catering for that segment. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Think about it a lot, man. Like, even where like we painted all the walls that were green to beige.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Boys Royale, actually. Yeah, and we've kept the dark grey that was already on the cornices in the windows. But then I stopped at the point of painting the doors very purposefully. So that one's painted there, but the original red here, which is like the post office red, yeah, and it's grungy and scratched. And I think if we had painted it along with the bathroom doors, the internals, it would have been too shiny and too finished. Right. So for us, just like thinking through, okay, we've done all this stuff inside, but we're keeping the floors as uh I gave them a quick bath. Yeah, or bend in. You bend in. Ben David's legend. Um, we're keeping the old furniture.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Just like having those elements so it doesn't just become this plastic, very clean feeling space.
SPEAKER_04:It's not completely new. It's yeah, it's lived in.
SPEAKER_01:It's lived in just still feels lived in totally. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, so Jamie, tell us about like your role in the pub and and what are you excited about? Like, why did you want to get involved in this project?
SPEAKER_04:Um, I mean, the role itself is something I've never done. Any manager, um, I can already say in sort of 10 days I've learnt so much. Um, today feels like a bit of a crunch day in terms of very out of my decks a little bit. Okay. Um, but I'm just really looking forward to learning a lot more than I have done before. Yeah. Um, in the sector of like being in a pub as well and that kind of service I've never done really. Um, it's a bit more refined dining, isn't it? So this is this is a bit more relaxed and how do you think that's gonna translate? I think pretty good. I mean, I'm not I'm not a silver service diner, um silver service waitress, anyways. But um the characters I think I want it is what I'm most interested in in and excited for. Like, I want the old man sat at the end of the bar for four hours telling stories from the 60s or something. Like, I I don't know. That's I just um I shouldn't say 60s, so I say 30s, 40s. That is now.
SPEAKER_02:It'd be pretty old if it's from the 30s.
SPEAKER_04:Um yeah, I'm I'm so excited to interact with the neighborhood as well. I think that's the idea of different people coming in with different stories and different backgrounds is really exciting. And so having the chance to talk to them.
SPEAKER_01:Do you say, have you worked in a pub before?
SPEAKER_04:Very like a month, probably.
SPEAKER_01:What's your seven? What's then as a as a pub goer, right? Because I'm certain you've you've been a patron of a pub many times.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What is your favorite pub memory?
SPEAKER_04:So this way I guess I could go back to old boys on the bar because um when I was working in London, I used to live in Stratham and there was a local pub near us, and all my friends were in nine to five corporate jobs. So on my Monday or Tuesday, I'd go to the pub, and I would sit at the bar with a book, and I ended up meeting these three gentlemen who all would go every single day.
SPEAKER_01:Yay!
SPEAKER_04:And it was I used to look forward to it, and I'd just go and sit there with these old boys, and I'd take my book, and sometimes they'd talk, sometimes we wouldn't. And it just me was like, this is what it should be. Like I felt so comfortable going there. I was 21, 22, maybe. And my friends were like, How can you go to a pub on your own? And I was like, Because you're just there's other people there as well. It was just really I find yeah, it was one of my things I looked forward to the most.
SPEAKER_02:That's cool. I love that. What's your favorite pub memory? And then we'll wrap this up. Yeah, sure. I'd say I'll give you one, there's as many. Um, when I also London, when I worked in London, I'd do once a week, we would do a split shift so you can do the lunch service, and then you'd be off for three hours before dinner. Um, and it was too far to go home. Um, and there was this one manager um who was uh Austrian, used to take me to this little pub, like literal hole in the wall pub um around the corner uh from Hyde Park. And during that time as well, their kitchen was closed, and the only thing they did was sausages on sticks at that time. Wow. And he's Austrian, so he's like, this is the best place ever. So we would used to drink Leffer and uh have these sossos, and we'd drink like three pints and have like three sausages each, and then roll back to work, and then literally put our suits back on. It was like Michelin side restaurant, and both be red faced just at briefing, just like trying to hold our shit together. Oh my god. And then we just coast through service, and if you're on a split, you're the first to be knocked off to go home early. So we're just waiting for like 10 p.m. and then you just be like, oh, I'm out. That is so cool. It was the best, though. Like classic, like I honestly, it would have been 20 packs size. It was tiny, still there. Yeah, um awesome space. Very awesome, and literally just on this little back street that you would never was it was like a dead end, you would never walk down. Yeah, so cool. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:That's very, very cool.
SPEAKER_02:All right, should we uh wrap up this episode? It's been going for pretty long. Yeah, Jamie's gotten off here. Like Jamie really did want to be on, so yeah. Well, you can come back for the last episode if you're yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for listening to the Pinnycast. 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 welcomed. 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 massive thanks again to industry kitchens, to poster boy 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.