From Part-Time Hospo Job to Café Owner

My name is Daniel, and I’ve been in hospitality since it was just a part-time job while I was at uni.

Like a lot of people, I didn’t step into the industry thinking I’d one day own a café. At the time, it was work. A way to earn money. Something practical. But over the years, hospitality became much more than that.

I worked my way through all sorts of roles. Kitchen hand, private butler, corporate hospitality, manager, bar tender, bar back, catering, cook, supervisor, you name it. I saw many sides of the industry, and I experienced hospitality in a time when the standards around pressure, hours, and treatment were very different to what they should be.

This was during the era when pots and pans being thrown in anger was brushed off as normal. Sixteen-hour days without a proper break were accepted. I still remember finishing a job on Cockatoo Island at 5:30 in the morning, only to be left stranded with my colleagues because no boat had been arranged to get the staff back to the mainland.

There were parts of it I loved, and parts of it I hated.

I loved what it gave me. It built resilience. It sharpened my awareness of people. It taught me how to stay calm under pressure, read a room, solve problems quickly, and work hard when things were uncomfortable. Those lessons have stayed with me.

What I hated was what it often took to build that resilience. The industry had a way of toughening you up, but it could also wear you down if you let it.

Do I resent any of it? Not at all.

In fact, I hold a view that some people might disagree with. If I had known from the start that I would one day open a café and pursue entrepreneurship in hospitality, I probably would not have gone to uni. I would have committed myself fully to the industry and to learning what it actually takes to run a hospitality business.

That is not to say uni has no value. For people who have a clear path and know exactly what they want to study and where they want it to take them, I think it is absolutely the right move. But for me, as someone who always had that persistent itch to own, grow, and operate businesses, it was not the best teacher.

Uni did not harden me. If anything, it softened me. Real hospitality did the opposite.

Looking back, I think the better path for me would have been to pick one strong operation, commit to it fully, and learn everything I could from the inside. Not because every business is the same, they are not, but because there is no substitute for being in it. Seeing how a business runs. Understanding people. Feeling pressure. Learning leadership. Watching the small decisions that shape culture, service, and profit.

Of course, you cannot change the past. You can only learn from it.

So here I am, many years later, still in hospitality, still learning, and now living the reality of business ownership from the other side. It has been turbulent at times. I have fallen out with a business partner. I have worked ninety-hour weeks. I have carried the pressure that comes with trying to keep a business alive and growing at the same time.

But I have also learned that building a business is not about doing everything forever. It is about building the right team, backing the right people, and creating a culture that can carry the business forward.

That has been one of the most rewarding parts of this chapter. Hiring for will and culture. Training a genuinely awesome team. Supporting them from a bird’s-eye view. Watching people grow into their roles and helping create an environment where good food, good hospitality, and good standards can thrive without chaos being the price.

So what’s next?

We are working on the next stage of the business. We want to grow. We want to keep delivering delicious food and genuine hospitality. We want to keep developing our people and creating something that lasts, so stay tuned.

Hospitality has given me a lot. Some lessons came the hard way. Some came with sacrifice. But every stage of it has shaped how I lead today, and how I see the future.

And I still believe the best part is what comes next.