Hot Takes & Takeaways: How Melbourne's Hospo Scene Nails Casual Dining
The brains behind some of your favourite dining establishments share insights into how they became the best in the business.
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Melbourne's food and drinks scene is synonymous with diversity, community and, of course, trendiness. From renowned fine dining to world-famous coffee, great market culture and even being the birthplace of the dim sim, Melburnians have a lot to brag about.
This also includes having some of the best casual eats in the country. Whether you want a slice of piping hot pizza, a scoop of artisanal gelato or a burger with the lot, Melbourne has you covered.
To get the lowdown on the city's fast-food scene, we recently caught up with three hospo entrepreneurs (and genuine legends) for a lunchtime live-stream. Keep scrolling to catch highlights from our chat with the gelato queen behind Piccolina, Sandra Foti; pizza pro from Small Print Pizza, Adam Chapman; and the brains (and stomach) behind Easy's and Jimmy's Burgers, Jimmy Hurlston.
HARD WORK REALLY DOES PAY OFF
We're sorry to break it to you but our hospo legends didn't rise to the top without putting in a whole lot of hard work first. Sandra Foti shares that she comes from a "really entrepreneurial family" and that upbringing shaped her approach to business. "I learned that work ethic — nothing comes for free. People say 'how did you do it?'. It's like: because I work my backside off every single day," she says.
The secret? Finding something you're passionate about. "I go into work every day and I absolutely love it. It doesn't feel like work, it's like a hobby," she shares.
FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION
Second to hard work is the trio's refusal to fear failure. Quick, bold decisions are the name of the game — this was the approach that Foti took when she first made the call to open a gelateria.
"You're in the deep end, you move fast, you put yourself all in. Nobody wants to fail so you just...don't fail," Foti shares.
This mantra surely helped her and our other guests persevere during Melbourne's seemingly endless lockdowns throughout 2020–2021. But the challenges aren't over. "It's tough out there at the moment with the cost of goods going up so much. So I am doing everything I can to keep us afloat: pump out some more marketing, make some changes in the kitchen," Chapman tells us.
THE PIVOT IS AN ASSET
Another common thread among our three guests is that their backgrounds are so vastly different from where they've found themselves in the hospitality realm. For starters, Chapman studied property and real estate at university, while Hurlston went from working in law to writing a book about hamburgers.
But their past careers weren't a waste of time. Hurlston flexes his finely honed negotiating skills daily. And Foti, who studied graphic design, tells us that her training "unconsciously drives everything" she does. Take stock of Piccolina's impeccable branding and you'll see that to be true.
COMMUNITY MEANS EVERYTHING
What makes the Melbourne hospo scene thrive? Community spirit might have something to do with it. Hurlston built his reputation as a burger connoisseur with the Instagram account @JimmysBurgers, giving shoutouts to the country's best burgers, sambos and all-around good eats. The golden rule of his account is the age-old saying "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it".
Chapman also refuses to engage in any negative conversation on surrounding businesses. Instead, the consensus is that promoting your competitors rather than trying to take them down means creating a stronger industry for everyone involved.
"I'd much rather promote the industry I'm in because the more people that love it and thinking about it, the more customers you get out of it. It was about creating a bigger industry and a bigger space that I worked in," Hurlston says.
You can watch the full episode of Hot Takes & Takeaways on our Facebook page. If you'd like to learn more about what restaurants are doing to innovate right now, check out Uber Eats' Enterprise Hub.
