The season one finale of The PAX Hospitality Podcast brings the full crew together to reflect on the conversations, ideas, and moments that shaped the show’s first run. The episode acts as a guided recap, revisiting standout themes from across the season: empowering teams rather than creating founder dependency, the value of simple and practical systems, and the importance of using structure—whether in reservations, financial reporting, or people development—to reduce friction and anxiety in ...
In this episode of the PAX Hospitality Podcast, Leon Kennedy is joined by Tim Varney, Loren Daniels and Michael Bascetta to unpack The Gen Z Retail Revolution report from Principals — and what it really means for hospitality. Leon frames Gen Z as a “retail earthquake” and a clear changing of the guard: the playbook that worked for the last 20 years is falling over, and operators can either double down on the old rules or pivot into a new reality where Gen Z is both a powerful customer segment...
In this episode of the PAX Hospitality Podcast, Leon Kennedy sits down with our very own guest services and reservation specialist Loren Daniels to unpack one deceptively simple question: how easy is it to book your restaurant? Sparked by Leon’s recent ABC interview and the flood of operator questions that followed, the pair dig into why “reservation strategy” isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a revenue lever that can move the needle in days, not months. Loren breaks reservation strategy down into so...
In Episode 9 of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, Leon and Loren run a practical, no-nonsense primer on hospitality marketing — the kind that turns work into revenue rather than vanity metrics. Rather than lofty brand theory, the conversation breaks marketing into an operational framework: Pre (how you attract customers), During (the customer experience and frontline sales), and Post (retention, review management and re-engagement). The aim is simple: make marketing mechanical, measurable and owne...
In this Happy Hour episode, Tim and Michael open with the December spiral — too-early Christmas parties, the pressure to “catch up before the end of the year,” and the collective madness that hits hospitality every November. Their thesis? It’s okay to say no, it’s okay to push things to Jan or Feb, and it’s okay to stop saying “Happy New Year” after the first week of January. The pair riff on the emotional pressure of year-end expectations and the strange social rituals that come with it. The...
In the second half of this two-part series with Kate Hemat-Siraky from Zest People, Leon pivots from “boring but essential” compliance to the motivating half of People Experience (aka the dry, defunct term Human Resources) – Culture. They start by stressing that engagement only works if compliance is structurally sound – otherwise you’re “pouring into a bucket with a hole in it.” From there, they zoom into how engagement really shows up in a hospitality business: the journeys people take, how...
In this Happy Hour episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, Tim and Michael welcome their first-ever guest to the format: the endlessly fascinating and wildly accomplished Quentin Berthonneau of Oji House. Fresh off a two-month baking odyssey across France, Italy, and the Czech Republic, Quentin talks about travelling with his family, teaching masterclasses, and—no big deal—competing on the world stage at the Panettone World Championships. It’s been a big eight weeks. The chat jumps from Prest...
In this episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, Leon Kennedy sits down with HR and people & culture specialist Kate Hemat-Siraky to unpack the relatively unsexy but absolutely critical foundation of a healthy hospitality business: compliance. Sitting in the Consistency layer of the PAX Pyramid (after Identity and Product, before Promo), this conversation is about getting your “house in order” so your people, finance and culture have something solid to stand on. Together, they walk through...
In this Happy Hour episode, Tim and Michael shallow-dive into the deep world of pubs — why they matter, why they endure, and why we all seem to orbit back to them no matter our age or stage of life. Sparked by the opening week of Daphne and its promising early days community mix (martini first-timers, prams, young blokes, everyone in between), the meandering becomes a wider reflection on what great pubs actually do: create spaces where people feel welcome, relaxed, and understood without need...
In this episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, host Leon Kennedy sits down with Kate Bradford to unpack the least glamorous but most essential pillar of hospitality success: finance. Sitting within the Consistency layer of the PAX Pyramid, this episode explores how financial literacy, transparency, and disciplined reporting form the backbone of every sustainable business. Leon and Kate walk through the five key components of financial architecture — forecasting, weekly reporting, month...
In this Happy Hour episode, Tim Varney, Michael Bascetta, and Loren Daniels crack a Bridge Road non-alc and wade into award season — where Michelin, Good Food, and the ever-turning wheels of recognition are all up for debate. After a bumbling beginning, they take a sharp left and look at validation in Australian hospitality: who gives it, who needs it, and who’s over it. With Michelin reportedly asking Tourism Australia for $7.5 million to bring its stars Down Under (and being politely declin...
The best venues don’t try to be everything, they just know who they are. When that clarity of identity runs deep, the product, the choices, and the guest experience all align without forcing it. In this episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, the team dig into the “Product” layer of the PAX Pyramid with guest Rob Libecans (Caretaker’s Cottage, Three Horses). They reframe product as the discipline that connects menu, service, space, systems, and culture to true market-fit — not just “what’s on...
In this Happy Hour debut, Tim Varney and Michael Bascetta shoot the breeze on coffee automation—from the romance of hand-made shots to the reality of rising costs, labour shortages, and the need for consistency. They map the spectrum: rock-bottom convenience (7-Eleven) at one end, high-touch specialty bars at the other, and today’s “weird hybrid era” in between—puck presses, auto-frothers, machine-grinder handshakes, and scales in the drip tray. Tim traces how roasting already crossed that br...
In this episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, hosts Leon Kennedy, Michael Bascetta, Loren Daniels, and Tim Varney tackle one of the most overlooked — yet defining — disciplines in hospitality: product. Moving up the PAX Pyramid from Identity to Product, the group explores what it means to be truly product-led — not just in the physical sense of dishes and drinks, but as a system of thinking that aligns identity, customer needs, and operational decisions. From examples like Chin Chin’s perfe...
In this episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, host Leon Kennedy sits down with Joseph Abboud (Rumi, Rocket Society) to unpack what “identity” looks like when you move it from gut-feel to something a whole team can use. Rather than trading in abstract brand-speak, Joseph shares the hard-won process of articulating Rumi’s purpose—“to embody Middle Eastern hospitality with a contemporary attitude so that we can have a positive impact on our immediate and broader community”—and how writin...
In this frank episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, host Leon Kennedy sits down with Phillip Spry (Director, Mawson)to demystify what happens when a venue slides from strain to financial distress—and how to avoid becoming part of the predicted contraction. Rather than fear, the focus is clarity: a plain-English definition of insolvency (“can’t pay debts when they’re due”), the day-one reality of administration (what administrators actually do, when trading can continue, and why prepar...
In this episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, host Leon Kennedy is joined by Loren Daniels, Tim Varney, and Michael Bascetta to explore one of the simplest yet most powerful frameworks in hospitality: the Pyramid. What starts as a practical chat quickly evolves into a deep dive on why so many businesses pour money into marketing without first building the foundation that makes promotion actually work. We break down the four layers of the Pyramid — Identity, Product, Consistency, and Promo —...
In our very first episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, we—Leon Kennedy, Loren Daniels, Tim Varney, and Michael Bascetta—sit down to introduce the show and share the story behind it. This isn’t a pitch or a polished presentation. It’s an open conversation about where PAX came from, why we care so deeply about hospitality, and how we want to help operators thrive through collaboration rather than secrecy. PAX grew out of relatively informal advice sessions that have gradually become somethin...