Make Restaurants Profitable

How to handle restaurant owner burnout, modernise a family restaurant business without losing what made it special, and raise your prices when you're scared people won't pay them. Four real restaurant owners. Four totally different problems. Honest answers, fast. You asked. Tim answered. In this Q&A special, four owners from around the world wrote in with the kind of problems that don't show up on the P&L — but quietly eat away at the business and the operator behind it. If you've ...

James "Jimmy" Hurlston was studying intellectual property law when he decided he'd had enough. So he quit, ate over 800 burgers in a year, wrote The Burger Book, and three years later opened Easey's — the now-iconic Collingwood burger joint with a train carriage on the roof, graffiti walls, and a rotating cast of Melbourne's hospitality and street art scene. Eleven years on, Easey's is still standing. But James says he wouldn't open a burger shop today. In this episode, he sits down with Tim ...

Cam Henderson and his wife Jill opened The Winey Cow in Mornington, Victoria in 2014. For nearly a decade it became one of the Mornington Peninsula's most loved cafés — Cafe of the Year, Best Breakfast Restaurant Victoria, the lot. Then COVID happened. Three years of opening, closing, opening, closing. By the end of it, Cam was mentally beat up. So he turned to Jill and said: "I think we need to move." Two weeks of quarantine in Cairns later, they landed on the Gold Coast — into a house the...

The federal budget just dropped. The surcharge ban is creeping closer. And the next round of wage rises is about to land. In this month's industry update, Tim sits down with Wes Lambert — CEO of ARCA and the man in Parliament advocating for every café and restaurant in Australia — to break down what's just happened, what's coming, and what you need to be doing about it right now. It's the most direct conversation we've had yet. If you're already break-even, you need to hear this. You'll hear:...

Julian Cincotta grew up cooking at his family's café in Western Sydney. He went on to train under Neil Perry at Rockpool, won Young Chef of the Year, staged at some of the best restaurants in the world — and then opened a fried chicken and champagne bar in Surry Hills with a sneaker wall and a Wu-Tang soundtrack. Two weeks after they opened, Wu-Tang Clan walked in. That was ten years ago. In this episode, Julian sits down with Tim to talk through the whole decade — the concept nobody believed...

Martin Lange has opened eight bars in Brisbane since 2006. He currently runs four. Takes three and a half months off a year. And has trained bartenders now working in some of the best bars in Paris and London. He didn't do it by cutting corners or chasing trends. He did it by committing to a 10-year minimum on every lease, never taking over another venue's location, spending hundreds of thousands on R&D, and building a team culture so strong that the staff who leave for bigger money keep ...

You asked. Tim answered. In this Q&A special, four real owners share the exact problems keeping them up at night — and Tim gets into the specifics of each one. No fluff. No theory. Just honest, practical answers to the questions most hospo owners are too afraid to say out loud. This episode covers: 00:00 – Is handmade baking even financially viable anymore or should I just switch to frozen? 07:00 – Standards are slipping. How do I fix it without becoming the boss everyone hates?...

Tony Kelly had multiple restaurants across three states. Then one day, he walked into work and was handed a letter. He was out. In this episode, Tony breaks down the real story behind the comeback — the mistakes, the systems, the partnership lessons, the financial discipline, and the mindset shift that changed everything. If you’ve ever felt stretched, betrayed, burnt out, or one bad month away from disaster… This one will hit home. You’ll hear: 00:00 – The day Tony got forced out of his ...

Welcome back to our monthly Hospitality Industry Update, where Tim sits down with Wes Lambert from ARCA to break down what’s happening behind the scenes in Canberra — and what it means for restaurant, cafe and bar owners across Australia. In this March update, we unpack the latest economic and industry developments impacting hospitality right now — including the growing number of venue closures, global supply chain disruptions, rising operating costs, and the upcoming Payday Super changes hi...

AI isn’t coming for hospitality. It’s already here. From missed phone calls costing you reservations… to real-time dynamic pricing… to AI agents handling guest conversations 24/7 — the gap between early adopters and everyone else is widening fast. In this episode, Tim sits down with Bianca Brady, co-founder & CEO of FY.ai and MIT-trained data scientist, to break down what’s actually happening in the industry — without the hype. This isn’t about robots replacing chefs. It’s about removing ...

This is the first of our new monthly hospitality industry updates-where Tim sits down with Wes Lambert from ARCA to break down what's happening behind the scenes that every venue owner needs to know. In this February edition, we cover everything from upcoming 30% junior wage increases, a potential ban on debit card surcharges, RBA interest rate outlook, and how to get ahead of the 5%+ wage rise expected in 2026. If you've been too busy in the day-to-day to track it all-this is your shortcut...

CK Chin didn’t plan on becoming a hospitality powerhouse. He just needed a night job. But what started as bouncing at a nightclub became the beginning of a remarkable journey—one that now includes Michelin recognition, multi-million dollar businesses, a 6-seat restaurant with a waitlist, a community art park, and a dance studio built with his wife. This episode dives into how CK makes it all work—with heart, with humility, and with a relentless focus on people. You’ll hear: 00:00 – CK’s unli...

Luke Mangan got asked to leave school at 15. No HSC. No plan. No backup. Just a two-week work experience at one of Australia's best restaurants — and a quiet feeling that maybe this was something he could do. What followed was a career that took him from washing dishes in Melbourne, to a cold call that landed him a stage at a 3-star Michelin kitchen in London, to opening Salt in Sydney the year of the Olympics, to restaurants in Tokyo, Singapore, Indonesia, and cruise ships across the Pacific...