Flashback: It was the 2000s; Honky Tonks was an underground club that had a tricky entrance and near-impossible to get in. In the era then of commercial mega-clubs with state of the art fittings, this venue was championing eccentricity in smaller, more intimate spaces. You’d go there for the music…

The other night I attended a hospitality industry event. It was a cocktail style occasion, so there was a substantial mix of mingling with people you know and meeting new like-minded industry friends. One of the latter, a fellow front-of-house comrade who I just met there, asked me an awesome…

My wife and I arrived early, the maître d’ ushered us to wait, and I seized the opportunity for wine list perusing. “Take your time!” I assured. By this time, I already decided on a crisp Chardonnay to start and a light Gamay for later. Jumping the gun? Not quite…

Sometimes it can feel like they’re not meant to work in the same team and you may even prefer one type over the other — but what happens when that very combo actually makes up the organisation’s ‘dream team’? — I used to tailor different methods of managing to each individual staff; finding out their personal propensities, capacities, likes and dislikes — the list is endless. …

Over the years I’ve hired (and fired) quite a few hospitality-employee personality types. From the highly-skilled ‘hatted’ restaurant staff, to the overzealous William Angliss graduates, to the anything-goes travelling backpackers, to the distracted minds of Uni students (Ok fine, maybe only during assignment submission week), to the seasoned hospitality worker…

I was short-staffed this week and interesting things come up when people (myself included!) are put under extreme pressure. A late night debriefing conversation naturally followed with an old friend — who is also in hospitality, who also just had finished service at another venue. We merged our post-service observations. …