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Speaker 1: Chris Lucas, Welcome to the Mentor and straight Talk. Mate.

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Speaker 2: This is the first time I ever done a double terrific.

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Speaker 2: We feel special special day. Is it because I'm from

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Speaker 2: Melbourne get a little bit of special treatment?

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Speaker 1: No, it's because you came up to where my head

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Speaker 1: office is here in Chiffley, which is where you're now.

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Speaker 1: New head office for Sydney is in the bottom of Chiffley.

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Speaker 1: So we're both together.

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Speaker 2: We're neighbors, mate, and I can't wait to get down

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Speaker 2: and try in your restaurant.

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Speaker 1: But let's just talk a little bit about who Chris

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Speaker 1: Lucas is. Whenever I see the name Lucas, then if

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Speaker 1: I see a name like Chris in the front of it,

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Speaker 1: or Michael or James or Peter or Nick, I immediately

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Speaker 1: think there's a Greek behind there somewhere. So the name

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Speaker 1: Lucas is it's obviously spelled l u c as australianized

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Speaker 1: or angler is your name of Greek derivation? Well, it

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Speaker 1: used to be l o u, which is the Greek derivation.

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Speaker 1: My father is from a little island called Castells, little

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Speaker 1: island where half of Sydney.

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Speaker 2: Where half of Sydney. You're from a little island, but

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Speaker 2: big impact as so my father was one of the

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Speaker 2: very early immigrants. He came. He actually arrived in Sydney

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Speaker 2: along with his three brothers in nineteen twenty three. Wow, yeah,

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Speaker 2: just after the because they were living in Constantinople or

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Speaker 2: Istanbul today, so they were Greek Turks in some respects

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Speaker 2: they were Greeks, but they were living in occupied Turkey

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Speaker 2: at the time. And then when the war broke out,

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Speaker 2: there was a lot of refugees and there were six

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Speaker 2: brothers and they're all supposed to go on one boat

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Speaker 2: to Greece, but somehow they got separated. Two landed in

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Speaker 2: Greece and four landed in Sydney. And so yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: been quite a history. So of course in those days,

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Speaker 2: you know, being being a Greek immigrant wasn't so trendy,

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Speaker 2: so they had to change the name to be able

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Speaker 2: to get work and to be able to get along

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Speaker 2: in what was a pretty white Anglos act of time

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Speaker 2: back then. Right of people.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people probably don't realize is Castle Reso

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Speaker 1: is just so the like you can see Turkey from there,

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Speaker 1: you could almost swim to it. Yeah you can, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you can actually, yeah, you probably can well, I probably couldn't.

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Speaker 1: Greets are great Phraser probably could swim. We haven't won

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Speaker 1: too many world records bog I mean, but yeah, but

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Speaker 1: you could, you can. It's pretty close and and and

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Speaker 1: the castle reasons a lot of it's Inny otherwise known

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Speaker 1: as the Kazi's quite prolific in terms of represent representing

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Speaker 1: Greece in Australia, especially in terms of business. Yes, they've

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Speaker 1: done well.

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Speaker 2: Although were referred to as the Jews of Greece because

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Speaker 2: Castells will be close to Turkey. Were great traders, so

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Speaker 2: my my grandfather, etcetera. We're all tobacco traders back in

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Speaker 2: the turn of the century. So they were very commercially

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Speaker 2: minded and so they've overrepresented in terms of their success

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Speaker 2: I think because of their sort of trading history in

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Speaker 2: their culture, so they're always very business oriented.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that you're a Melbourne person. We're in

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Speaker 1: Sydney today for recording, but you're a Melbourne from Melbourne.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that your heritage has had any impact

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Speaker 1: on who Chris Lucas is today in terms are doing business?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: in lots of different ways, so you know, we're very

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Speaker 2: proud of our culture. I mean, you know, in the

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Speaker 2: very formative years, I grew up in a pub. My

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Speaker 2: dad was a publican and a cook. Today they call

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Speaker 2: the chefs, but my father used to call himself a

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Speaker 2: very simple cook. And so we had a small pub

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Speaker 2: in a rural area called Gelong, which is like Newcastle,

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Speaker 2: I guess, right, very working class. And in fact our

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Speaker 2: pub was down by the wharfs. So in those days,

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Speaker 2: you know our clientele where the wharf is and the

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Speaker 2: shears and you know, all the tough guys, right. And

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Speaker 2: my dad used to sell traditional sort of pub for

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Speaker 2: you know, stencils and steaks and things. But because he's Greek,

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Speaker 2: he wanted to sell Greek food. You wanted to cook

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Speaker 2: Greek food, right, So he he would cook up some

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Speaker 2: Greek food as a special and he give it to

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Speaker 2: me as a kid because no one would bump me up,

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Speaker 2: right because I was just a kid, say and send

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Speaker 2: me out into the counter room. And he said, let's

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Speaker 2: just give the food away because they won't pay for it.

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Speaker 2: But he said, I wanted to try it, the Greek food,

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Speaker 2: and I'd go out as a kid, you know, with

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Speaker 2: a tray of masaka or something, and they go, what's

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Speaker 2: this crap? I look at this Greek food. I said,

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Speaker 2: you should try it's very tasty. Oh, we'll not paying

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Speaker 2: for this rubbish, and said it's for free. So I

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Speaker 2: learned a little sense of hospitality at the very basic level.

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Speaker 2: I learned what it was like to mix it with

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Speaker 2: the tough guys in those days. I guess, you know,

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Speaker 2: the sort of street sort of cred that you needed

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Speaker 2: in sort of you know, the formative years. But I

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Speaker 2: learned about how important food is, how it breaks barriers,

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Speaker 2: breakdown barriers, and in fact, by giving away the Greek food,

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Speaker 2: it became one of the most popular pubs in July

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Speaker 2: well because they say, oh, con gives away a bit

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Speaker 2: of grief. It's actually not bad this stuff. We've tried it.

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Speaker 2: It tastes all right, that's free. So eventually we built

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Speaker 2: up a market and the food in the pub became

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Speaker 2: more and more European, more and more Greek, more and

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Speaker 2: more Italian as the years went on, and actually got

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Speaker 2: known as we changed the name of it to the

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Speaker 2: Continental so to give it a bit of a europe

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Speaker 2: It's spin. So I learned my sort of formative years.

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Speaker 2: Then I guess, you know, service and looking after people

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Speaker 2: and being hospitable.

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Speaker 1: What does that mean though, Chris, it's interesting when someone

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Speaker 1: like you ta for granted, but maybe you don't the

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Speaker 1: expectation of good service, good quality food, and a great

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Speaker 1: experience when you go into a restaurant. I expected uta

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Speaker 1: for granted because you just you just know it's normal.

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Speaker 1: But what does it actually mean when you're thinking about

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Speaker 1: how do I make sure this is experience is really

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Speaker 1: good for my new customer, Mark, who's coming in today,

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Speaker 1: for example, what is that about? Like, it's not just

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Speaker 1: the menu, it's just not just not something coming and say, hello,

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Speaker 1: how are you? Would you like a glass of water

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Speaker 1: like a slice of bread?

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Speaker 2: But what what am I?

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Speaker 1: What are you trying to convey to me to your

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Speaker 1: new customer?

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Speaker 2: Look, that's a very good question, because I haven't been

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Speaker 2: asked that too many times. But so there's sort of

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Speaker 2: two elements to that. So I learned the basic family

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Speaker 2: type of hospitality as in your pub, that's part of it,

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Speaker 2: family business and so forth. But like all good Greek parents,

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Speaker 2: they didn't want me to work in the family business,

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Speaker 2: you know, because you do better. They thought that we've

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Speaker 2: worked we've worked all these years and we want our

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Speaker 2: young son to go on to be a doctor or

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Speaker 2: a lawyer.

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Speaker 1: Same my family, one hundred percent three.

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Speaker 2: So I actually I wasn't much good at school, but

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Speaker 2: I ended up believe it or not, I ended up

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Speaker 2: but becoming a pharmacist. Right. My mother used to be

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Speaker 2: able to tell the local priest looks like but he's

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Speaker 2: a worker on a drug. So then, luckily enough, I

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Speaker 2: actually took my first job here in Sydney working for

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Speaker 2: IBM as a trainee salesman. I was. I wasn't much

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Speaker 2: good at chemistry, so I ended up going into a

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Speaker 2: sales right at the time one of the most successful

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Speaker 2: marketing companies in the world. So it wasn't just a

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Speaker 2: technology business IBM. It was a great marketing company and

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Speaker 2: so I learned the other side of service and how

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Speaker 2: important clients are by one of the best companies in

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Speaker 2: the world. The training I got in IBM as a

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Speaker 2: young trainee salesman, you know, they flew into New York

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Speaker 2: and a young country kid, I got exposure to the

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Speaker 2: world of commerce and high flying commerce. But one of

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Speaker 2: the best companies in the world. So what big corporates alike,

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Speaker 2: what big corporates alone, what it's like to really look

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Speaker 2: after clients and how important clients or service is because

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Speaker 2: it was a very service based business.

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Speaker 1: And in those days probably taken them to lunch and

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Speaker 1: things like that.

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Speaker 2: They used to actually train you how to take them

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Speaker 2: to lunch. Really, yep, you used to sit in a

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Speaker 2: room just like this, and we'd actually have training sessions

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Speaker 2: what they used to call cold calling, and they used

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Speaker 2: to run us through how do you actually deal with

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Speaker 2: the client in a professional IBM way? You know. I

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Speaker 2: remember turning up to Kent Street. Headquarters was in Kent

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Speaker 2: Street that it's now been turning into an apartment building,

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Speaker 2: and I thought it looked pretty cool. I had a

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Speaker 2: hot pair of flares and a sort of a check jacket.

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Speaker 2: And I remember the very first day I walked into

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Speaker 2: the office to training, they called me up to the

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Speaker 2: front and they said, what are you wearing? Someone wearing

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Speaker 2: a business suit? They said, the definition of a certain

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Speaker 2: this business is where the jacket mats of pants. So

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Speaker 2: here's a few dollars, go down to David Jones and

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Speaker 2: get yourself a navy blue suit and a few white shirts.

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Speaker 2: So I learned that you had to dress well, you

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Speaker 2: had to present yourself well, you had to be on brand,

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Speaker 2: but it was all about the client. So in IBM

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Speaker 2: they used to have this thick needs to stick on

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Speaker 2: your desk, used to say the word yes. So the

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Speaker 2: word no was almost effectively banned in that company. You

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Speaker 2: were never really allowed to say no to a client.

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Speaker 2: You had to think about creativity, how you could deal

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Speaker 2: with a client to give them what they wanted. So

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Speaker 2: I learned, you know, the top end skills of dealing

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Speaker 2: with class, and I had the family ethos what was

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Speaker 2: ingrained built into my DNA, and you know, being Greek

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Speaker 2: or being you know, from European descent, I think we

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Speaker 2: do have a natural sort of want to please people.

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Speaker 2: You know, the cultures are often referred to as very warm,

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Speaker 2: hospitable cultures, and so I had that really I think

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Speaker 2: important blend the top plight, professional, world class type stuff.

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Speaker 2: But I also had that really basic thing and look,

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Speaker 2: to be honest, all these years on, here we are now,

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Speaker 2: not twenty twenty five. The world's changed lots since the eighties,

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Speaker 2: but what hasn't changed is making the customer happy, making

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Speaker 2: them feel them the most important. And today business we

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Speaker 2: banned the word known I really we don't. We don't

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Speaker 2: use that word in our business at all. That's that's

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Speaker 2: the first thing we do in our training. It's all

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Speaker 2: about how we can make the guest experience the best

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Speaker 2: it possibly can. And we have a very simple rule.

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Speaker 2: We want our customers to leave our restaurants wanting to

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Speaker 2: come back. If they want to come back, we've done

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Speaker 2: our job. If they don't want to come back, we

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Speaker 2: haven't done our job. And it's just as simple as that.

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Speaker 2: So we like to keep the messaging very simple. Make

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Speaker 2: sure they leave the premise happy, and then that's up

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Speaker 2: to the individual to make sure that they serve them properly,

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Speaker 2: that they speak to them appropriately, that they dress appropriately.

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Speaker 2: They're claim professional, but most importantly, they're hospitable.

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Speaker 1: If if if I go back to your first restaurant,

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Speaker 1: when was the decision that you made, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: leave IBM or wherever you're doing at the time, I'm

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Speaker 1: going to I'm going to go and do a restaurant.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember that period?

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Speaker 2: I remember it very well because my mother was very

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Speaker 2: disappointed by the whole thing. By then, my father had

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Speaker 2: passed away, and you know, I was off into the

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Speaker 2: corporate world. Actually, by then i'd left, I mean many

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Speaker 2: years after that, and I'd started my own IT business

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Speaker 2: and my own tolco business and was quite successful. But

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Speaker 2: inside me, there was this little thing sitting in the

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Speaker 2: back of my head that always sort of was at

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Speaker 2: me about wanting to do what I think I always

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Speaker 2: was meant to do. I had a great passion for

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Speaker 2: hospitality and food and it never really left me, to

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Speaker 2: be honest, there's a bit of a magical thing about restaurants.

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Speaker 2: I don't know what it is. A sort of people

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Speaker 2: experience restaurants every day of the week just about you know,

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Speaker 2: whether it's a cafe or a bar or a restaurant.

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Speaker 2: So you know, as a result, they everyone has an

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Speaker 2: opinion about the business, but it's sort of it also

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Speaker 2: means that they're in there, they've invested. So even if

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Speaker 2: you talk to the most successful business from you, you

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Speaker 2: know he's happy to sit down and have a chat

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Speaker 2: to you about what his favor restaurant. There's a real

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Speaker 2: connection there, I think with restaurants. I think that's what

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Speaker 2: I love about the business. So that was always sitting

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Speaker 2: inside me, and I was lucky that I was in

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Speaker 2: my mid thirties and I was I was sort of

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Speaker 2: pretty much done with the IT business and the flying

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Speaker 2: around the world. I'd lived in Takeyo, I've lived in

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Speaker 2: New York, lived in London and so forth, and I

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Speaker 2: wanted to come back home. I had a young family,

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Speaker 2: and the opportunity came up to get back into the

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Speaker 2: restaurant business. I owned this building and had a little

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Speaker 2: restaurant in it, and the operator had sort of gone

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Speaker 2: missings and I was left with this nice restaurant. I thought, well,

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Speaker 2: I'll just give that a bit of a run for

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Speaker 2: a couple of months, and if I don't like it,

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Speaker 2: I don't like it. But if I like it, maybe prepsit.

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Speaker 2: It gives me something to do. And it went back

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Speaker 2: on from there. It was a hit. We had a

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Speaker 2: few changes. It was called one fitz Roysterrot and it's

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Speaker 2: killed him down down on the beach. And after that

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Speaker 2: it was sort of you know, also Melbourne and Sydney,

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Speaker 2: Australia really was growing up. You know, we were becoming

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Speaker 2: a truly global country. Sydney and Melbourne were becoming more sophisticated.

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Speaker 2: The cities had gone from smallish sort of cities to

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Speaker 2: big cities. You know, people immigrating into a straight It

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Speaker 2: was an exciting time, as you know, in the eighties

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Speaker 2: and nineties. You know, the economies were strong, and I

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Speaker 2: think there was a real there was a real interesting food.

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Speaker 2: All of a sudden, restaurants exploded from just being your

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Speaker 2: traditional sort of little family run business to all sorts

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Speaker 2: of places. I then expanded into pubs. You know, I

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Speaker 2: remember you visiting the Botanical Hotel back in the in

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Speaker 2: the eighties, and you know that was the.

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Speaker 1: First scary you remember me in the eighties because like

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to be remembered probably for what I

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Speaker 1: would have been.

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Speaker 2: I think I met you in the bar rather than

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Speaker 2: the restaurants, So.

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Speaker 1: That right, I actually remember who it was with and

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Speaker 1: you reminded me early on. But it was a good

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Speaker 1: old friend of mine more and Meat from Perth. I

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Speaker 1: remember that very well.

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Speaker 2: A great calful character. So that pub was one of

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Speaker 2: the first sort of hate the term, I don't really

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Speaker 2: like the term ASTRAI puppet. It was one of the

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Speaker 2: first pubs to sort of move away from booze and

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Speaker 2: move towards being a restaurant. And of course it was

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Speaker 2: in South Yarra, which is one of the up market

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Speaker 2: suburbs of Melbourne. Botanical was an iconic hotel and I

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Speaker 2: moved it from a boozer to a fabulous restaurant, actually

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Speaker 2: one restaurant of the year, and you know, it's sort

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Speaker 2: of really sort of opened up my eyes to what

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Speaker 2: could be possible. And I thought, so, you know what,

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Speaker 2: it's not bad this business. It's not like the old days,

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Speaker 2: you know, working around in the old pub. It's you know,

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Speaker 2: things are a bit more exciting and I could apply

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Speaker 2: my sort of global skills, you know, I'd become you know,

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Speaker 2: I was really a marketeer, and I was able to

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Speaker 2: look at restaurants as brands but apply a strong sense

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Speaker 2: of hospitality to it, but making sure that we could

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Speaker 2: be really innovative. What could restaurants be in Australia. It

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Speaker 2: was a really formative time, so you know, I was

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Speaker 2: always thinking about, well, how can we change the business

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Speaker 2: model to make it even more exciting. To to recognize

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Speaker 2: that Australia's demography was changing, you know, we you know,

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Speaker 2: if you look at our cities, we weren't just made

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Speaker 2: up of Italians and Greeks anymore. Where you know, there

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Speaker 2: was a huge Asian population growing and there was other

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Speaker 2: parts of the world that are immigranted to Australia, and

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Speaker 2: you know, we had an amazing sort of multicultural blend

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Speaker 2: in our cities. And of course then technology came around.

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Speaker 2: You know, if you look at social media, it really

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Speaker 2: changed the way restaurants worked. Gave people an intimate access

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Speaker 2: into how we work as a restaurant. There was no

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Speaker 2: more secrets anymore, and I think that was that's really

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Speaker 2: changed the face of restaurants again. And then when you

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Speaker 2: combine it with the you know, we talked about pubs.

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Speaker 2: It sort of happened a bit in Sydney, but it

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Speaker 2: definitely happened in Melbourne where pubs went from being these

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Speaker 2: little places you can have a countermill to and they

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Speaker 2: basically turned into gaming venues. Now, you know, people, young

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Speaker 2: people hadn't nowhere to go anymore. Like in mind, I

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Speaker 2: used to go to the local pub to meet people

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Speaker 2: and socialize and so forth. Well god forbid, you might

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Speaker 2: even go to a disc go, right, did you remember those?

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Speaker 1: I'd certainly do.

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Speaker 2: And so all those places sort are pretty much gone.

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Speaker 2: Licensing laws that changed, you know, people's interests had changed,

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Speaker 2: and people wanted something better out of their experience and

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Speaker 2: and of course then add the powerful flux of social media,

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Speaker 2: the ability to be able to go in and take

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Speaker 2: a photo and you know, put a favorite dish up

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Speaker 2: on the internet and et cetera and talk about it

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Speaker 2: if you average people became influencers. But what it did

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Speaker 2: was it democratized and opened up this restaurant.

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Speaker 1: Experience, made it all acceptable and available and accessible and.

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Speaker 2: Available accessible, and all of a sudden, restaurants became meeting places.

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Speaker 2: They filled that void that I think pubs and clubs

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Speaker 2: and nightclubs that sort of left behind. And that was

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Speaker 2: very exciting because it also you know, you know, if

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Speaker 2: you look at the last thirty or so years, has

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Speaker 2: been this huge wealth generation, so people could afford to

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Speaker 2: go to restaurants almost every day of the week. If

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Speaker 2: you look at my kids, they're out to restaurants, you know,

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Speaker 2: five times, six times a week, and the rest of

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Speaker 2: the time they're ording food on either sook. No one

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Speaker 2: cooks anymore, and so that was also a powerful change

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Speaker 2: in the industry. And if you look at Sydney today

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Speaker 2: and you look at Melbourne today, their tourism mix has changed.

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Speaker 2: People now see food tourism, whether it's national tourism or

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Speaker 2: international tourism for food, for food. So and that's why

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Speaker 2: today you've got thousands and thousands of different types of restaurants,

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Speaker 2: all kinds, and in fact, to be honest, I think

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Speaker 2: Sidney and Melbourne are two of the greatest food cities

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Speaker 2: in the world. You know, you've got to Italy and

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Speaker 2: because they've got such amazing food culture, but it's about

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Speaker 2: Italian food. So you struggle to find you a sushi

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Speaker 2: restaurant or anything else other than Italian food. Now they

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Speaker 2: do its same in Athens, same in France, at same

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Speaker 2: in Tokyo. You know, I lived in Japan for three years,

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Speaker 2: you know, so I love sushi, but after a couple

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Speaker 2: of years, you know you're hangering for a burger, right, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And I think that's what's amazing about our cities that

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Speaker 2: we didn't have that sort of history tying us down.

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Speaker 2: Young countries, young cities, very energetic, amazing multicultural mix. All

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Speaker 2: of a sudden, we've got thousands upon thousands of restaurants today.

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Speaker 1: Do you think in Melbourne, I mean, your roots are Melbourne,

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Speaker 1: but you know it's Sydney. But just in terms of Melbourne,

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Speaker 1: do you think that Melbourne culturally and in terms of

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Speaker 1: the way people live their lives is it has become

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Speaker 1: over the last ten to fifteen years more interested in

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Speaker 1: eating out or less well.

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Speaker 2: Melbourn's don't different to anywhere else except for the weather

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Speaker 2: a little less now, you know, Melbourn's what we call

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Speaker 2: a sort of European style cool climate city. I refer

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Speaker 2: to as a cool climbers It has very distinct you know,

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Speaker 2: seasonal lady to it. We don't have amazing beaches and

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Speaker 2: you know, great outdoor experiences necessarily some of them, I disagree.

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Speaker 2: So it's a great food city. So people entertained by

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Speaker 2: going out right you know, the weekends the city is

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Speaker 2: really up and going, you meaning the CBD in the

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Speaker 2: CD and the restaurants are full and they're busy and

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Speaker 2: people having lunch and so forth. So it sort of

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Speaker 2: lends itself, you know, to climatically to that sort of

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Speaker 2: you know, socializing now, you know, but Sydney is becoming

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Speaker 2: like that. You know, Sydney has great outdoor experiences when

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Speaker 2: the weather is fine. You know, everyone's down at Bondai Beach.

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Speaker 2: But look at what's happened to Bondai Beach. I mean

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Speaker 2: there's restaurants everywhere. You know, pubs have been turning into restaurants.

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Speaker 2: There's cafes everywhere, and people are sitting on the sidewalk.

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Speaker 2: You know, fifteen years ago you weren't allowed to put

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Speaker 2: a chair and the table out on the footpath, right Yep.

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Speaker 2: Today it's very European, very cost impoltant.

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Speaker 1: Because Sunday just gone. I actually went down the fingall

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Speaker 1: walked on with the finger Warf there and it was packed.

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Speaker 1: Most of the restaurants were packed. I just just had

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Speaker 1: nothing to do. I just sort of just walked down

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Speaker 1: and see what it was. But it was a nice day.

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Speaker 1: It was literally packed. That's finger Woarf at Cydney's Willm

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Speaker 1: Loo and I got a bit of surprise. Maybe I

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Speaker 1: need to get out more. But you saying that, and

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Speaker 1: I'm wondering to myself, maybe you can answer this question

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Speaker 1: for Melbourne. Are they are they Melbourne people going to

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Speaker 1: restaurants or are you talking about people coming from overseas

398
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Speaker 1: saying I come here on holidays and checking Melbourne out.

399
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Speaker 1: I want to go on a gastronomical tour. I'm going

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Speaker 1: to go. I'm from China, I'm from Tokyo, I'm from

401
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Speaker 1: wherever America. I'm going to check out what the restaurants

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Speaker 1: are like. Is that the go Well, that's there's both.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you you know, let's talk about city for

404
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Speaker 2: a second. I think Sydney's going through a really amazing

405
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Speaker 2: growth spurt, you know, in terms of footure is really yeah.

406
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Speaker 2: Well I think, yeah, well we're up here, so uh

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Speaker 2: and we've come up for a good reason. I mean,

408
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Speaker 2: as you know, I've had chinchin here for quite a

409
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Speaker 2: few years. So down central are in Surrey Hills, Surrey Hills,

410
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Speaker 2: and that's been really successful.

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Speaker 1: And that's an Asian Asian.

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Speaker 2: Asian sort of time sort of you know, not Asian

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Speaker 2: type place in a beautiful building, the Griffiths to your building.

414
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Speaker 2: And so you know, I've seen the change here in

415
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Speaker 2: Sydney over the years where unfortunately, you know, we had

416
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Speaker 2: those terrible lockdown laws which you know, I think really

417
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Speaker 2: decimated the nighttime economy and set back sort of, you know,

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Speaker 2: set back the restaurant industry quite a bit as well

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Speaker 2: as the nighttime industry. But they're getting above it, you know,

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Speaker 2: they're getting on with it now and you now have

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Speaker 2: a Minister for the night Time economy, and so I think,

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00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:57,840
Speaker 2: you know, the powers of be here in Sydney realized

423
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Speaker 2: what they'd sort of lost by bringing those sort of

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Speaker 2: draconian laws. Melbourne did the same of course with the lockdowns,

425
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Speaker 2: you know, a terrible effect on the city. And then

426
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Speaker 2: all of a sudden, tourists weren't coming. Well, you know,

427
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Speaker 2: you close down the restaurants, You're closed down the cafes,

428
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Speaker 2: you close down the fresco dining, and yeah, I guess what,

429
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Speaker 2: the tourist aren't going to come and the locals aren't

430
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Speaker 2: going to go out. And if you look at our industry,

431
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 2: and I've been sort of championing you know, I've been

432
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:33,920
Speaker 2: trying to champion our industry as a country, what we

433
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:35,960
Speaker 2: do and how we do it so well on a

434
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 2: global basis, because I really do not just say it

435
00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:40,639
Speaker 2: because you know, I think I'm biased. I have a

436
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,360
Speaker 2: little bias. But you fly all over the world, everyone

437
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:48,160
Speaker 2: travels today. You just need to look at how you know,

438
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 2: how expensive a meal is in London today, it's crazy,

439
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,000
Speaker 2: or in New York or anywhere really for that matter.

440
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,440
Speaker 2: Even you got places like miklos A ten years ago,

441
00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:58,680
Speaker 2: you can't have a cheap meal you can't have a

442
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:01,000
Speaker 2: great meal there anymore, and you compare it to what

443
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:05,720
Speaker 2: you get here amazing value, amazing breadth and dead Now.

444
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 2: One thing these lockdowns and unfortunately the sort of you know,

445
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:15,359
Speaker 2: the licensing lockouts here as well. They've taught our powers

446
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:19,359
Speaker 2: to be is how important food is, how imput the

447
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:25,960
Speaker 2: industry is to our cities because they drive tourism. Yes,

448
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:28,760
Speaker 2: of course, who wants to come to a city that

449
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:31,240
Speaker 2: closes at six pm? But that goes back to the

450
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:33,160
Speaker 2: mild days when I was a young kid in pubs

451
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:35,639
Speaker 2: used to shat at six pm. I don't want to

452
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:39,240
Speaker 2: live like that anymore. And you have such a beautiful

453
00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:42,639
Speaker 2: climate here. I mean even Melbourne. People criticize the climate

454
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 2: down there, but you know it's very moderate compared to

455
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,679
Speaker 2: say Toronto or New York, where's that's minus thirteen degrees.

456
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,119
Speaker 2: No one goes out and has el fresco dining there.

457
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:53,200
Speaker 2: But you look at Melbourne, even in the depths of winter,

458
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,159
Speaker 2: people sitting down on the street, you know, having a

459
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,119
Speaker 2: cappuccino and enjoying the thing. And look at what's happened

460
00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:04,160
Speaker 2: on the cafe culture today. Australian cities, even Brisbane and Adelaide,

461
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 2: So the Perth, the cafe culture is amazing. It's very European.

462
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 2: People talk about our coffee banks some of the best

463
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:15,160
Speaker 2: in the world. So I think that I'm very proud

464
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,399
Speaker 2: of that, having seen it over the decades and having

465
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 2: been part of it, played our small role in it right,

466
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:23,159
Speaker 2: that we've been able to go from a sort of

467
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:31,159
Speaker 2: humble family, you know, Planman's lunch top business two really

468
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:35,960
Speaker 2: truly global cities that are streets ahead in some regards

469
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:41,200
Speaker 2: in terms of Efinberg. So you would rate Australian culinary

470
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:44,440
Speaker 2: experiences and let's say the major cities are not even

471
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,439
Speaker 2: the major cities outside of that, you would rate us

472
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 2: highly relative to other places in the world, not just

473
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,800
Speaker 2: for value, not because of the in terms of quality qualities. Absolutely,

474
00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:56,880
Speaker 2: in fact, we I mean you don't need to take

475
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 2: my word for it. I was London only just recently

476
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 2: talk into one of the biggest operators in Europe and

477
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 2: he was telling me that he rates Australian culinary experiences

478
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:10,800
Speaker 2: as some of the best of the world. I think

479
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:13,679
Speaker 2: it was a few years ago pre COVID we tourism

480
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:17,400
Speaker 2: Australia flew out the world's top fifty Chefs as part

481
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 2: of the World's Top fifty Restaurant Awards. A lot of

482
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,360
Speaker 2: these chefs had never been to Australia before, and all

483
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:26,520
Speaker 2: they could talk about was how outstanding our product is,

484
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 2: signed the produce, not just produce, but the restaurants, how

485
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 2: beautiful our restaurants are, how innovative they are, how innovative

486
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,040
Speaker 2: the design is. How we're prepared to be brave in

487
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,639
Speaker 2: terms of what our offerings look like. You know, if

488
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,879
Speaker 2: you look at Chinchin, for instance, you know they were

489
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:47,919
Speaker 2: blown away by a place like Chinchin. We all take

490
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 2: it for granted because you know, we've grown up around

491
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:53,679
Speaker 2: Asian food. But Chinchin was a groundbreaking restaurant, you know,

492
00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 2: serving thousands of people every day in a very democratized way.

493
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:03,879
Speaker 2: You know, no reservations, queue up, loud music, cocktails Europe,

494
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,399
Speaker 2: you had to a restaurant there's no music. Usually you know,

495
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 2: they frown upon it. So I've never really noticed if

496
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 2: you're sitting in Italy, if he's sitting in the your

497
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:13,920
Speaker 2: Malfie coast and just sort of take a second other

498
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,879
Speaker 2: than look at the beautiful, amazing coastline. There's there's no

499
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:20,680
Speaker 2: what we call vibe. There's no energy other than the

500
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 2: food itself, and I guess the amazing views. So Australians

501
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 2: have led the way in creating today's restaurant culture globally.

502
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 2: And because people can fly around, because people have the Internet,

503
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:35,360
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera, they're getting to see what we

504
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:37,080
Speaker 2: do and.

505
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:39,240
Speaker 1: Because there's more more able to be showcased.

506
00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:42,680
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, Citney now is a very

507
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:44,720
Speaker 2: famous city around the world. Always was, it was a

508
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,439
Speaker 2: gateway Australia, but it's it's been talked about, not just

509
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 2: about its amazing natural beauties anymore. Now they're talking about

510
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 2: this amazing European style culture, the Alfresco dining.

511
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: Melbourne was always known for that.

512
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 2: Melbourne's always been known for that because it was a

513
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 2: European style city, as I said to you, a city

514
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 2: that sort of grew up on its restaurants. And so

515
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 2: I think Melbourne has always had this sort of monicum

516
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 2: that it's been the food capital of Australia. But you

517
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 2: know today you can always just about go anywhere in

518
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,200
Speaker 2: Australia and have a pretty good meal.

519
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 1: So if I go back to your could you just

520
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:23,720
Speaker 1: take me through maybe your series of restaurants that you've had,

521
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:27,359
Speaker 1: just just for the sake of you know, completeness in

522
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,960
Speaker 1: this podcast, because you've had a whole stack of them,

523
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 1: and just maybe take me back from the Botannic organ

524
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 1: just go forward from there.

525
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, well look after that. Well, so today we've got

526
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 2: about three thousand employees.

527
00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, a three thousand employees.

528
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 2: Wow. We've got restaurants obviously in Melbourne, Canberra as well

529
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 2: as now Sydney, and so we some of the brands yeah,

530
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 2: and some of the brands are they're very iconic brands.

531
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,399
Speaker 2: Of course, we're very lucky that we've been able to

532
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,880
Speaker 2: create some amazing restaurants that have really changed the face

533
00:27:57,920 --> 00:27:59,879
Speaker 2: of dying, certainly in Melbourne. And then it's you know,

534
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:01,920
Speaker 2: as you know, some of these brands are now coming

535
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 2: to Sydney. So you know, after the Botannical of course,

536
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,679
Speaker 2: which was a phenomenal operation, an amazing brand, you know,

537
00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:11,720
Speaker 2: introducing sort of gastrode dining into into the sort of

538
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 2: vernacular which I think has changed the face of dining

539
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 2: in Australian pubs. You know. Since then, you know, we

540
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:23,239
Speaker 2: we went on to open Chinchin. Now Chinchin was an

541
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,479
Speaker 2: incredible restaurant that opened. It was a very humble little restaurant,

542
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 2: it was. It was. It was built in this sort

543
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 2: of little in Flinders Lane which was a sort of

544
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:35,399
Speaker 2: a old schmutter area where the old textile operators all

545
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 2: as Jewish guy, Jewish guys used to cut the fabric. Yeah,

546
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,719
Speaker 2: and in fact Chinchin was part of a as it

547
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 2: was in those days. It took over an old fabric shop, which,

548
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:47,960
Speaker 2: by the way, we did here in Sydney, the Griffiths

549
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 2: t Building was owned by an old Jewish merchant and

550
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:53,720
Speaker 2: it used to be his textile operators.

551
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 1: A lot of the Jewish merchants are still down there. Yeah,

552
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: got a lot of the raid traders down there, that's right,

553
00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 1: the schmudder meaning rad Trader trader.

554
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,120
Speaker 2: That's right. So we opened up in this sort of

555
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 2: textile area which there wasn't a lot of restaurants, and

556
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 2: all of a sudden Chinchin. It's sort of it sort

557
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 2: of captured the zeitggast that we were talking about. You know,

558
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,120
Speaker 2: people were it was the you know, the Internet had

559
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 2: only just sort of really started to kick on and

560
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 2: Twitter had just been sort of sort of just come

561
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 2: to the fall, and we were really the first restaurant

562
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,719
Speaker 2: to combine the two, you know, opening up a restaurant

563
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 2: at the same time, but using you know, whatever technology

564
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 2: that was available to us. We started putting we were

565
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 2: the first to really put photos of food on you know,

566
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 2: on the Internet. And I remember at the time, I

567
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 2: was sort of being criticized because, oh, you know, Chris

568
00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 2: is changing the changing the face of restaurants. You know,

569
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 2: you can't make a booking anymore, and can't book my babysitter,

570
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 2: and you know, he's doing silly things like putting pictures

571
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 2: of food on the just keep up. Well, I kept

572
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 2: looking out the door and there was a huge que

573
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:52,960
Speaker 2: you know, there was something right. So we were doing

574
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 2: something right, you know, and it had sort of it

575
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 2: just sort of created this sort of accessibility that people

576
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 2: hadn't had it before. You know. We we pulled the

577
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 2: prices back, so we made the food really affordable, and

578
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:12,240
Speaker 2: we made the experience you know, really vibrant, colorful, cool music,

579
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 2: amazing cocktails, and it just sort of took off and

580
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 2: so changing and I think really then started an amazing

581
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 2: showed me what was really happening in our city. You

582
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 2: know that all of a sudden, people just necessarily want

583
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:27,080
Speaker 2: to go to a stuff in your restaurant, just sit

584
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 2: down and sort of have a very singular experience. They

585
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 2: wanted to do other things. Some people describe chinging as

586
00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:36,479
Speaker 2: the sort of night club of restaurants, and you know,

587
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 2: it attracted an amazing just an amazing response, not just

588
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 2: from local Belberanians, but people from come all over and

589
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 2: international people. I remember walking outside of the restaurant and

590
00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,640
Speaker 2: I was walking past the queue and I thought to myself,

591
00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 2: that's Cadel Evans and he just won the French Tour

592
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 2: de France. Of course, so good El Evans was the

593
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 2: biggest nament in the world at the time, and he's

594
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 2: sitting in the que said Cadel Evans. Yeah. I said, look,

595
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 2: if you if you'd like you said, you know, I said,

596
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 2: I'm happy to get your table. He goes, O, no, no, no,

597
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 2: I wouldn't dare jump the queue. He said, I'm having

598
00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 2: a great time. So I'm signing autographs and talking to everyone.

599
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, that's what it's all about. It's

600
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 2: really cool. I said, here's the biggest sporting star in Australia,

601
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 2: just one of the Tour of France. And I was

602
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,880
Speaker 2: happy to line up with everyone else and the experience

603
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 2: and soak up the experience. Yeah, so, you know, we

604
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 2: moved on after that, and we opened up Baby Pizza,

605
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 2: which was another sort of version of democratizing sort of

606
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 2: Italian sort of casual pizzas that went crazy. We opened

607
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:46,480
Speaker 2: up a restaurant called Hawker Hall, which was then a

608
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 2: sort of a Singapore and Malaysian Hawker market restaurant. And

609
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 2: then now we started thinking, well, we can go beyond

610
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 2: casual restaurants, because what we've created these occasual restaurants is

611
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:03,960
Speaker 2: an amazing sort of product, but maybe we can translate

612
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 2: some of what we're doing to experienceial restaurants. And I'd

613
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 2: had a sort of a bit of a look, I

614
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 2: guess maybe whether it's my Greek background or humble workings

615
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 2: in a pub, I was never really comfortable with sort

616
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 2: of what they call fine dining. I didn't mind finding

617
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 2: I like to go to one every now and then,

618
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 2: but I thought we could sort of also democratize top

619
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:28,479
Speaker 2: end restaurants, make them a little more friendlier and make

620
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 2: them a little more accessible, make the food perhaps a

621
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 2: little more simple, a bit more straightforward, and it takes

622
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 2: some of that magic that we've created in these casual restaurants.

623
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:42,320
Speaker 2: So we sort of we pushed the boat out a

624
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 2: bit by then. By the way, we'd open Chinch in

625
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 2: Sydney and everyone said to me, oh, that's like taking

626
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 2: Carles to Newcastle, you know, opening an Asian restaurant in Sydney.

627
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 2: There's a thousand Asian restaurants in Sydney. But we brought

628
00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 2: our own stick, as they say, you know, our own

629
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 2: sort of magic formula. It was incredible again, same sort

630
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:07,920
Speaker 2: of thing cues down Surry Hills, and you know, people

631
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 2: in Sydney took to it. Just a lot of people

632
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 2: in Melbourne took to it. So then I thought the

633
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:13,480
Speaker 2: next challenge for us was to take what we do,

634
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 2: as I said, and sort of put it into a

635
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 2: sort of more experiential restaurants, you know. And the next

636
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 2: step for us was Society, which was this huge development

637
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 2: on the corner of Exhibition Street in Collins Street, which

638
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 2: is what they call the Paris end of Melbourne, you know.

639
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 2: And I'm not sure sure what quite the equivalent here

640
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 2: is in city, but perhaps Chiefley is around here is

641
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 2: around here, right, And it was probably the first and

642
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 2: last time you'd ever get a chance to open a

643
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:47,680
Speaker 2: restaurant in such an iconic location. It's the most expensive

644
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 2: real estate in Melbourne, and so we took this opportunity,

645
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 2: which is quite a risk at the time, to open

646
00:33:55,120 --> 00:34:00,120
Speaker 2: a destinational restaurant and to call it from a very

647
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 2: iconic name, Society. Society was the first true fine dining

648
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 2: restaurant that opened in Melbourne in nineteen twenty three by

649
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 2: an Italian family And the reason why I called it

650
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,080
Speaker 2: Society is I just love the name. It sort of

651
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:16,840
Speaker 2: reflected what we're all about. You know, we're in this

652
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:21,080
Speaker 2: most prominent corner which was all about Society, and so

653
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,520
Speaker 2: the name really worked. And as it just so happened,

654
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 2: I acquired the old restaurant site called Society, which today

655
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 2: is Maison Battat, so it was sort of it sort

656
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 2: of worked. Anyway, we opened the restaurant and we opened

657
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 2: it actually five times, so it's the first resident Australia

658
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:40,239
Speaker 2: to open five times and close five times because we

659
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 2: were trying to open it during COVID, so every time

660
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 2: we'd opened the restaurant, you know, teen days later we

661
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 2: get locked down. So we had a bit of a run.

662
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:49,040
Speaker 2: The good thing about it is we had a bit

663
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:52,120
Speaker 2: of a run about in terms of practice, so you

664
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:55,440
Speaker 2: don't often get to open a restaurant multiple times and survive.

665
00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 2: But it really talked about it was a grant, a

666
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,080
Speaker 2: grand dining room. It's a beautiful dinning round and if

667
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 2: you've been there, and it's stunning dining room. And it

668
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 2: was about taking Melbourne beyond what we had as a city.

669
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:14,840
Speaker 2: We had these amazing sort of casual restaurants that everyone

670
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 2: loved and very galitarian sort of restaurants, but this was

671
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:21,440
Speaker 2: a this is our top end restaurant, This is our

672
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:23,359
Speaker 2: world class reston. This is a restaurant you would find

673
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 2: in New York or London. At the time, it was

674
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:29,680
Speaker 2: the most expensive restaurant ever built in Australia. So it

675
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 2: was a big risk, but it came off and it's

676
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:35,759
Speaker 2: been this iconic restaurant that's really you know, talked about

677
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:39,400
Speaker 2: all over US raight in fact, talked about internationally, and

678
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:41,840
Speaker 2: so that showed to me, well, we can do what

679
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 2: we're doing just about any level. We opened up a

680
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:50,479
Speaker 2: Japanese restaurant called Casume. My love from Japan comes from

681
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:54,799
Speaker 2: having lived there. My daughter was born in Japan, and

682
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:59,760
Speaker 2: you know a lot of people find creating and running

683
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,759
Speaker 2: these restaurants very intimidating. It's tough because you need really

684
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:07,919
Speaker 2: highly skilled chefs that come mostly from overseas, so they're

685
00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:11,279
Speaker 2: not readily available here in Australia and so but I

686
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,080
Speaker 2: took on that challenge, you know, and Cosume was another

687
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 2: restaurant that I think showed that a humble, young Greek

688
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 2: boy from Geelong could actually open up a Japanese restaurant. So,

689
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:24,560
Speaker 2: you know, the funny thing is the only restaurant I've

690
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 2: never really opened up is a Greek restaurant, which I'm

691
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:32,040
Speaker 2: about to do next year. So I thought I'll put

692
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 2: everyone today is that Chris Lacers can eventually own a

693
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:36,560
Speaker 2: Greek restaurant. So that'll be next year. But I guess

694
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 2: the next step for us was, well, why don't we

695
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,360
Speaker 2: do something that's very New York, very sexy Because my

696
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,279
Speaker 2: time in IBM, I spent quite a lot of years

697
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 2: in New York. I love those sort of really dark,

698
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:52,160
Speaker 2: brooding SOHO type restaurants. You know where the gangsters used

699
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:55,800
Speaker 2: to hang out, they say, right, Sparks Steakhouse and Carbone.

700
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:58,240
Speaker 2: Of all these places, I thought there's always something magical

701
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:00,640
Speaker 2: about that, and of course, there's a very famous restaurant

702
00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 2: you're called The Grill, which was previously called the Four Seasons,

703
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:07,840
Speaker 2: where you know, it's most famous customer was with John F.

704
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:11,920
Speaker 2: Kennedy and they still have served today Jack's Pie. Right.

705
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:16,680
Speaker 2: But an amazing restaurant, really iconic restaurant, right, I said, well,

706
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:19,680
Speaker 2: why do we do something like that. Let's let's take

707
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 2: that amazing sort of Italian New York Soho vibe, but

708
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 2: combine it with something in the Austrains love, which is

709
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:31,360
Speaker 2: steak and Melbourne Haton really had a dedicated sort of

710
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 2: steakhouse at the time. So we created this new restaurant

711
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 2: called Grill. American name Grill being a steakhouse, great name,

712
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 2: and Americana, of course says the Italian word for American. Right.

713
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:45,719
Speaker 2: Everybody's saying, oh, what sort of strange name is that?

714
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:48,880
Speaker 2: I said, well, it's it's a blend of American culture

715
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:51,360
Speaker 2: with a little bit of European sensibility, right.

716
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 1: And it's Inland's Lane, isn't It's Inland Lane as well.

717
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:55,879
Speaker 1: It's very hard to get into. I can tell you well,

718
00:37:57,040 --> 00:37:59,880
Speaker 1: before you're coming on the show and before you have

719
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,719
Speaker 1: not downstairs, but I have to interrupt. I've tried again.

720
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:05,239
Speaker 1: There a couple of times I'm just randomly down in

721
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,239
Speaker 1: Melbourne for work and I'm just I think I'll just

722
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 1: get something neat. Oh my god, Like you can't just

723
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:15,319
Speaker 1: just turn up because it's so busy, so patronized.

724
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,719
Speaker 2: Is crazy, it's amazing. So you know, I thought I'd

725
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:22,800
Speaker 2: never see another chinchin and and Griddle Americana, albeit it

726
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:28,600
Speaker 2: is a different restaurant. It just went off. I remember

727
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:30,959
Speaker 2: my phone went into I had to turn my phone

728
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,200
Speaker 2: off in the first couple of weeks. My phone went

729
00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:36,239
Speaker 2: into meltdown and it just really touched on something that

730
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:42,040
Speaker 2: again we hadn't seen before in Melbourne. And funny enough,

731
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:44,359
Speaker 2: you know, you know you're talking about not being able

732
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 2: to get in. So you know, over the years now

733
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 2: I look at our sort of our demographic clientele Sydney startus.

734
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:54,640
Speaker 2: It's literally every Sydney person that comes down whilst I

735
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:56,680
Speaker 2: go to Griddle Americana, and I had a lot of

736
00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:58,800
Speaker 2: city people say to me because we're at the bottom

737
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 2: of one a one, which is like the equivalent to

738
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 2: Chiffley here.

739
00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:03,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, I went officely want to own columns, right, yeah, right,

740
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:05,760
Speaker 1: we have we think or cub I have another business

741
00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 1: there yet.

742
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:09,200
Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's a lot of very prominent Sydney people

743
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:11,840
Speaker 2: have offices in one I want you know, Morgan Stanley

744
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 2: has an office there, et et cetera. So you know

745
00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 2: they'd come down and they go, wow, this is like

746
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,799
Speaker 2: a Sydney restaurant in Melbourne. I said, that's a funny thing.

747
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:23,040
Speaker 2: I said, I've heard that quite a few times. It's

748
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:27,279
Speaker 2: an interesting interpretation. Now people see things and I think

749
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 2: what they're sort of trying to say to me is

750
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 2: it's it's a really glamorous restaurant. You go really well

751
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,879
Speaker 2: in Sydney. Right, So the hunt was on. I thought,

752
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,799
Speaker 2: well why not, you know, let's try and find an

753
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,799
Speaker 2: iconic location in Sydney. Everyone said to me, you'd never

754
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,680
Speaker 2: get Griffith's Tea. We end up having to buy the building.

755
00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:46,919
Speaker 2: By the way, it had been vaking forty two years

756
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:50,920
Speaker 2: and every real station said, look, he's never selling it

757
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:54,319
Speaker 2: buildings never, but it's just going to stay fake. Na. Well,

758
00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 2: we managed to get it and as it turned out,

759
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 2: the same owners of one oh one, which is the

760
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:04,720
Speaker 2: Common World Super fun I owned this building.

761
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:06,440
Speaker 1: Well they didn't know ow the whole building because I

762
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,400
Speaker 1: used to a part of it. So yeah, where you

763
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:10,680
Speaker 1: are now in the top of the roof, I sold that.

764
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 1: I sold it to them. I've been in there for

765
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:15,760
Speaker 1: twenty one years, twenty two years. It's a beautiful building.

766
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:18,800
Speaker 1: It's the old Countess Building, Yes, old Cornice headquarters. It

767
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:22,319
Speaker 1: is an iconic building. It's a crossroad from Chiffley Tower.

768
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:26,880
Speaker 1: It's beautifully central for everything. I own my Yellow Big

769
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:30,279
Speaker 1: Road businesses in this building as well. And I've been

770
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:32,160
Speaker 1: waiting for someone to set up a restaurant down there

771
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 1: made for so long. I'm so glad you did it.

772
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:39,520
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe it been vacant right

773
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:40,839
Speaker 2: in the heart of Well.

774
00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:43,000
Speaker 1: That's Specsavers and a few other bits. Was there for

775
00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 1: a while Savers and then but obviously because my cousin

776
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:50,279
Speaker 1: who owns the restaurant across their own right, he is

777
00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:53,319
Speaker 1: called District and one called the grand I know the boys. Yeah, yeah,

778
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 1: Well Johnny's my cousin from the same not Sam Sam

779
00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 1: Sam Sam Lebanese, but Johnny's I didn't know you related,

780
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:03,279
Speaker 1: you know, related, And he told me that he had

781
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: a crack at it. But then he said he walked

782
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 1: away and he said you were coming, that's right, And

783
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,880
Speaker 1: I said, that's great. We need a good restaurant like

784
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:12,680
Speaker 1: that here in Sydney. Yeah, well to me, you've done

785
00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:13,719
Speaker 1: a great job. I'll have to turn you.

786
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 2: Thank you.

787
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:17,880
Speaker 1: It's amazing. It's like I just I can't wait to

788
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 1: go and actually dine there. But it and your staff

789
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 1: they seem in the lift like I must have been

790
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:26,000
Speaker 1: invited twenty times so far to come in for the

791
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:28,800
Speaker 1: soft openings as you have various opiens or whatever you

792
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 1: call it, and but they're amazing. They're all plied. You're

793
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:33,200
Speaker 1: going on the lift because you know they might have

794
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:34,719
Speaker 1: to get a lift, a whole lot of boos or

795
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 1: whatever they going down to thing always very I mean

796
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:39,480
Speaker 1: I thought, how does his blade get these people would

797
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: be so well trained. Well, that's there's not normal.

798
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 2: That's the sense of hospitality that we have.

799
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: So as at the back of our house, it's not

800
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 1: even at the front of house.

801
00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:50,680
Speaker 2: Well, so it doesn't matter which part of the business

802
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:53,279
Speaker 2: you're in, you have to meet certain training standards with us,

803
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:57,319
Speaker 2: and so I expect chefs to be just as well

804
00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 2: focused on saying yes and making sure the customer experiences

805
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:05,279
Speaker 2: spot on as I do. We our front of house people,

806
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:08,360
Speaker 2: so that's always been the way we train people. And

807
00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 2: we've employed nearly three hundred young kids here.

808
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:13,480
Speaker 1: So that's all in this building that's just square.

809
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:13,719
Speaker 2: Yep.

810
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, I see a lot of young kids. Actually,

811
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:17,040
Speaker 1: finely enough.

812
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:18,560
Speaker 2: And we're going to be open seven days a week,

813
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:19,600
Speaker 2: lunch and dinner.

814
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:21,320
Speaker 1: Oh, seven days a week. That's amazing.

815
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:24,120
Speaker 2: And we're going to be cooking all day. So when

816
00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:27,319
Speaker 2: the we're actually serving breakfast in the morning. Yeah, we're

817
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:31,759
Speaker 2: doing a European style, you know, cafe and so, and

818
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:35,320
Speaker 2: then we'll run into lunch servers and so it'll be

819
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:36,960
Speaker 2: open all day. We won't close the kitchen all so

820
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:39,279
Speaker 2: if you come down, say three o'clock and you want

821
00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 2: a quick quick food or food, it'll be there. And

822
00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 2: then go into the evening of course. So it's it's

823
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:48,520
Speaker 2: a big operation. It's a lot of shifts to cover.

824
00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:50,840
Speaker 2: But I'm glad to I'm glad to hear you say that,

825
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 2: because you know, the first thing I said to the start,

826
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,040
Speaker 2: I said, we've got to get to know everyone in

827
00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:57,800
Speaker 2: the building. Yep. So I said, I want you to

828
00:42:57,880 --> 00:42:59,560
Speaker 2: go floor by floor. They probably annoyed you.

829
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:03,359
Speaker 1: As you said, they have sent invitations like lots of them.

830
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Well, you know, we're trying to cover our basics, right,

831
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 2: and I said, let's get to know everyone. I want

832
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:09,759
Speaker 2: to know everyone by their name, all right, because I

833
00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:14,920
Speaker 2: remember Sam and Johnny they knew everyone.

834
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 1: Yeah around here they do.

835
00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they had an intimate friendship with a lot

836
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,160
Speaker 2: of them. Right yeah, great guys, right, great guys. Well

837
00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:26,080
Speaker 2: they're not dead there, they're still going and I love

838
00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 2: the way they operated. I thought it was really you know,

839
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 2: it's a touch of the old school, right yeah. Yeah,

840
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:33,000
Speaker 2: and they're not there anymore. They still got the cafe.

841
00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:36,560
Speaker 2: But you know, I wanted to bring our own sort

842
00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:39,840
Speaker 2: of Melbourne hospitality. But it's not. It's not much different

843
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:40,880
Speaker 2: to what they had before that.

844
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what are you going to be serving? To

845
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:43,960
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about the menu?

846
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 2: So you know, as we talked about, it's an Italian steakhouse, right,

847
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 2: so beautiful handmade past us. We've got about sixteen different

848
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 2: stakes on so it's a huge state program and that

849
00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:00,399
Speaker 2: means it's types of steaks, types of pipes and stake

850
00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:03,840
Speaker 2: So we've got three different sections. We've got what we

851
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,799
Speaker 2: call our specialty steaks, which is dishes that we've sort

852
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 2: of created like a shadow by on with pepper sauce.

853
00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:11,879
Speaker 2: We've got a beef pize. Yeah, we've got a beef

854
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 2: pizzelor which is a beautiful eye fill it that we

855
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 2: cook in the wood oven. We've got a wood oven downstairs,

856
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:18,640
Speaker 2: and then we sort of emersed it into a rich

857
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:22,320
Speaker 2: tomato sauce with beautiful olives, a little bit of oregano.

858
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:25,160
Speaker 2: It's a very Mediterranean dishri a little bit of a

859
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:27,839
Speaker 2: Greek Italian dish that one I think, but it's been

860
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,880
Speaker 2: super popular in Melbourne. Wrong. And then we've got all

861
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 2: our steaks on the bone, so you're be able to

862
00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:34,879
Speaker 2: have your bis decker and your tea bone and so forth.

863
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:38,640
Speaker 2: And then we've got our individual steaks so you've able

864
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:40,080
Speaker 2: to come in a quick eye feel it if you want.

865
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 2: You're be able to have a minute steak at the

866
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 2: bar for thirty nine to fifty including chips.

867
00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:46,240
Speaker 1: That's amazing.

868
00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:49,239
Speaker 2: We're throwing the chips in. We'll be able to have

869
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:53,440
Speaker 2: a burger at the bar. So we've got this amazing

870
00:44:53,520 --> 00:44:56,040
Speaker 2: bar which seats about thirty forty people. And then we've

871
00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 2: got another little bar section, which it's another fifty So

872
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 2: we're using the bar as a sort of a quick

873
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 2: drop in if you want have a quick glass of

874
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:05,480
Speaker 2: wine and you can be in and out in sort

875
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,040
Speaker 2: of twenty thirty minutes for under thirty dollars. We did

876
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:10,920
Speaker 2: that in Melbourne and it creates a real vibrancy around

877
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:13,920
Speaker 2: the bar, right because not everyone has time to sit down,

878
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 2: sit down, munch. So we've got sort of two elements

879
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:18,800
Speaker 2: to the restaurant. We've got that sort of bar element

880
00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 2: which is going to be really cool, and then they'll

881
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 2: morph into an actual bar in the late afternoons.

882
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:27,000
Speaker 1: You have lit up the Chieffley's building. I mean, this

883
00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: building has just literally changed overnight.

884
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:32,640
Speaker 2: Well, that's what restaurants do. That's why restaurants are really important.

885
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 2: They do change the face of the building, especially a

886
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:36,279
Speaker 2: building like this.

887
00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:41,279
Speaker 1: And so, and can I ask a question, how is

888
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:45,120
Speaker 1: it you know, we've seen lots of restaurants, but you've

889
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:47,640
Speaker 1: been around for a long time. Most of your restaurants

890
00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:51,600
Speaker 1: are still going and successfully so and you're going from

891
00:45:51,640 --> 00:45:54,520
Speaker 1: strength to strength. What is it that marks the difference

892
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:58,640
Speaker 1: between someone like Chris Lucas and other operators who maybe

893
00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 1: great great people, intelligent people, hard working people, great concepts,

894
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:05,560
Speaker 1: but it just doesn't last. What's the difference.

895
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:11,800
Speaker 2: Well, so it's a little bit like i'd bemoan a

896
00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:15,840
Speaker 2: bit there, you know, the lack of sort of what

897
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:20,080
Speaker 2: I call traditional leadership in our country. You know, leaders

898
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:24,239
Speaker 2: today sometimes aren't what I defined as a sort of

899
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:26,640
Speaker 2: true leader. You know, look at the great leaders that

900
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:28,879
Speaker 2: we had over over the decades. You know, great people

901
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:31,600
Speaker 2: on Bob Hawk and you know Apple Keating and John

902
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 2: Howard and all these guys, right, you know, the natural leaders, right,

903
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:37,480
Speaker 2: but the leaders for a very good reason because they

904
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:42,160
Speaker 2: believed in something right and you might not always agree,

905
00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:45,200
Speaker 2: but you knew where they stood and where they came from.

906
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 2: It's not too much different in what we do in

907
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:53,799
Speaker 2: my business. There's a couple of cornerstones that are very

908
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,680
Speaker 2: a synonymous with Lucas restaurants. With my restaurants. If you

909
00:46:56,719 --> 00:46:58,400
Speaker 2: know that I'm going to go to a Chris Lucas restaurant,

910
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:02,280
Speaker 2: I'm going to hopefully get pretty good, if not great service.

911
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:08,000
Speaker 2: And that's something that's uncompromising for us. You're always going

912
00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 2: to get great value for money. Now, when I say

913
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,759
Speaker 2: great value, for money. I mean that it doesn't matter

914
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:16,880
Speaker 2: what the price of the item is, even if it's

915
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:20,200
Speaker 2: an expensive bottle of wine or an expensive dish. It's

916
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:22,799
Speaker 2: great venge for money because it's a great product. There's

917
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:26,320
Speaker 2: been no compromise. We've been working on our stake program

918
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:30,440
Speaker 2: for Grill Americano Cyney for nearly eighteen months. Well, so

919
00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:33,360
Speaker 2: we've been working with our supplies. We've gone out to

920
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:36,360
Speaker 2: the farmers. You know, we've been working with them to

921
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 2: make sure that we get the right breed and the

922
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:42,000
Speaker 2: right cuts and the right cattle. And you know that's

923
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:44,160
Speaker 2: time and money. You know, we've had chefs up here

924
00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:47,680
Speaker 2: working with our suppliers for that period of time. Same

925
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,080
Speaker 2: with the seafood industry. You know, we've been you know,

926
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:53,840
Speaker 2: out We've got this massive oyster bar that we've built downstairs.

927
00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:56,120
Speaker 2: I hope you like oysters. So we're going to present

928
00:47:56,200 --> 00:48:00,840
Speaker 2: about twelve to fourteen different types of oysters, which no

929
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:03,160
Speaker 2: restaurant does in Australia to be honest, other than my

930
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 2: restaurants in Melbourne, because it's a big commitment to run

931
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:10,080
Speaker 2: that sort of program. So you know, so with the

932
00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:14,879
Speaker 2: Chris Lucas Restaurant, you get uncompromising quality and great service. Now,

933
00:48:16,239 --> 00:48:18,240
Speaker 2: if you get those two things right in a restaurant

934
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:20,719
Speaker 2: business or any business, to be honest, I think you're

935
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:27,000
Speaker 2: halfway there. And then you know, I believe in making

936
00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:32,399
Speaker 2: sure that we're constantly challenging ourselves. So today's restaurant looks

937
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:34,640
Speaker 2: very different to what a restaurant looks like five years ago,

938
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 2: look like ten years ago, and what a restaurant might

939
00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:42,080
Speaker 2: look like five years from today. And so for me,

940
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:45,840
Speaker 2: there are no rules in that regard. What succeeds today

941
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,920
Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily mean it's a blueprint for the future. So

942
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:53,239
Speaker 2: I'm constantly thinking about what do we change in our

943
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 2: restaurants design wise, product wise, offering wise, so that we

944
00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:01,239
Speaker 2: can always be on the leading edge of innovation. And

945
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:05,040
Speaker 2: it's important to be innovative because tastes change the restaurant businesses,

946
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:09,640
Speaker 2: not judition to the fashion business. Things change constantly, especially

947
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:14,200
Speaker 2: in today's world, and what's cool or sort of you know,

948
00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:18,280
Speaker 2: trend on trend today, not that we're trying to always

949
00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:20,719
Speaker 2: be on trend, but you know, what works today might

950
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:24,759
Speaker 2: not work five years from today. And so I think

951
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:27,480
Speaker 2: that with me, you're always going to get something new,

952
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:29,760
Speaker 2: always going to get something hopefully exciting.

953
00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:31,759
Speaker 1: Well, I have to say what I've seen it the

954
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:33,680
Speaker 1: fit out so far, and that my team are going

955
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:36,440
Speaker 1: to put some stuff up on to support this podcast.

956
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:39,080
Speaker 1: They're going to get down and get some footage for

957
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:41,759
Speaker 1: what I've seen it. It is very beautiful inside. I

958
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:45,319
Speaker 1: mean I don't mean over the top lavish. I mean

959
00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:48,920
Speaker 1: beautiful like colors, lots of colors, beautiful, lots of I

960
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:50,880
Speaker 1: can I can sort of I haven't touched of it.

961
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:52,920
Speaker 1: I can sort of feel fabric as.

962
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:55,640
Speaker 2: A royal blue that we run through the venue is

963
00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 2: about this royal blue.

964
00:49:56,360 --> 00:49:58,640
Speaker 1: Clo I can see the royal blue in the fabric

965
00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:00,920
Speaker 1: and it feels like it looks very tactile.

966
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:02,560
Speaker 2: It looks like what I touch very much.

967
00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:05,480
Speaker 1: You've done a great job, mate, and I appreciate your

968
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,360
Speaker 1: appreciate your coming in and having a discussion with them

969
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:11,640
Speaker 1: me today. But probably importantly you've done your dad proud.

970
00:50:11,719 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 2: Mate. Well, that's important.

971
00:50:13,520 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 1: It is important.

972
00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:16,200
Speaker 2: It is important my late mother and my Lafe fell.

973
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:17,560
Speaker 2: She'll be very happy and.

974
00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:21,400
Speaker 1: Your mother's also passed so well. You've done them both proud,

975
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:25,040
Speaker 1: and especially from the humble beginnings that they all started

976
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:29,040
Speaker 1: with and your pool and yeah, yeah, for both sides.

977
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:32,839
Speaker 1: You know you've done them well. And thank god we're

978
00:50:33,239 --> 00:50:35,680
Speaker 1: getting some not that Sydney people can't do it, but

979
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:38,239
Speaker 1: thank god we're getting people from inter state like you

980
00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: coming up here and bringing up into Sydney what Sydney

981
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:41,640
Speaker 1: now needs.

982
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:43,520
Speaker 2: Well. I think that's the next phase for Australia. You know,

983
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:48,200
Speaker 2: where you know, is there's something great that's been created

984
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:51,520
Speaker 2: in Melbourne or Adelaide or why shouldn't it be that's

985
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:53,799
Speaker 2: shared it around? You know, we don't need to sort

986
00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:57,160
Speaker 2: of all be stuck in our own backyard, so to speak.

987
00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:00,560
Speaker 2: If you go to America, you know, if something succeeds

988
00:51:00,560 --> 00:51:02,520
Speaker 2: in New York, before you know it, it's in about

989
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:04,759
Speaker 2: thirty other states. And I think that's a great thing.

990
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:06,640
Speaker 2: I think that's where we're getting to in Australia, where

991
00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:11,200
Speaker 2: we're not so parochial anymore. We think about Australia and

992
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:13,200
Speaker 2: as I said to you, I think Australia is a

993
00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:15,480
Speaker 2: great food country, great to see made