SPEAKER_00 0:00

In this episode of the Hospital Dojo podcast, Leah Glynn, editor of Time Out Melbourne, explores what makes Melbourne's hospitality scene so unique, the importance of community and tips for venues to make a genuine impact through storytelling. This episode is proudly brought to you by Food and Hospitality Week, a major event in Australia's hospitality calendar connecting 15,000 chefs, owners, and industry professionals every year. Leah Glynn. Always been in Melbourne?

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Yeah, born and bred, yeah. Whereabouts? Um kind of out like just past Essendon area.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yeah, so always lived out that way.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Tell us a little about Essendon.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Oh, it's a great, it's a great spot. I mean, Essendon and Mooney Ponds, there are so many fantastic little spots to eat and drink. One of my fave cafes in Melbourne Convoy is out that way. Um, it's really, I feel like a bit of a hidden gem. I feel like people kind of go Brunswick, Fitzroy, um, and you don't realise all the little neighbourhood gems in spots like Essendon and Mooney Ponds and Pascovale and Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

And you have a rescue greyhound.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Oh yes, I do, yeah, Charlie.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

What happened with how'd Charlie come about?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Um we were just looking to get a dog and it had a greyhound prior to him. Um, and yeah, it's a really important. Um, it's really nice to be able to rescue those dogs in particular from their kind of racing backgrounds, and they're just the most adorable, sweetest long noodle boys of all time. Um, and yeah, he's just uh really, really lazy, just has severe separation anxiety at the same time. So my dad is literally babysitting him today, so I can be here. Yeah, but they're great.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

It's so funny when my little sister got a toy poodle, I didn't realise how attached the dog was to our family till my mother's HCF card had the dog's name and then our last name. Stop Dolce A on a HCF card. Oh my god, that's when I was like, this dog is on the same level of me right now, and they're not even paying bored, they're not paying nothing or not they don't contribute at all at all, besides to happiness.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

That's the case, and yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

That's what I tell my mum. When I was living at home, I was like, that's what I provide you, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah, no, dogs are the best.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Okay, uh yeah. Well, look, I'm glad um, you know, it's it's a great uh to to be able to rescue a dog, you have to be a you know, really a a different type of individual, someone with a with a big heart to be able to take on something like that. It's a responsibility, and that just shows the sort of person you are. When I see that, that's the sort of stuff that highlights to me is you know, people read, ah, it's a rescue dog, but it's not it's not just about the dog, it's about well, the person that took that initiative, what goes through their mind, what they're adopting, and what they're what they're now from what they've adopted, they now have to adapt their lifestyle, potentially around old traits.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Right? Because you can't sometimes you can't teach a dog new tricks, right? An old dog new tricks. That's what they say. It's the truth.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, and they greyhound um the rescue dogs in particular come with a lot of trauma from yeah, what they've experienced, and that's really you can't just you know get that out of them sometimes, so it's about adapting to their their special traits. Congratulations, thank you. Doing a great job for your great dog mum. I try my best.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

And in recent news, praising High Street in Melbourne as the coolest street on the planet.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah, how does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 3:38

What makes you say that?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Well, look, um, I guess it's one of time out in particular's kind of big um annual uh surveys that they do, and so there's a quite a few kind of factors that go into that. They look at things like nightlife and food and drink and community and arts and culture, and um, they also survey um our readers as well, and we were so excited to find out that yeah, High Street came out on top, and what what a win for Melbourne, I think. Like I wonder how.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

I wonder how, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Look, we put forward obviously, you know, our recommendations as well, and and yeah, it kind of just yeah, worked out in Melbourne's favour, um, which was awesome. And we we got to go down to the town to High Street and have a chat with the business owners and the people there, and honestly, it makes such a difference, which is lovely.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

You do, and you guys do such amazing work. When I was in New York, I seen the timeout markets.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Oh my gosh, aren't they amazing? How beautiful, right? I'm I'm really advocating to get one in Melbourne because I think we'd be the perfect city for that.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

I think so, and I I really do believe that. And I think that if you know um the the government needs to get behind it with with time out, because I know it's not just a one-person contribution, yeah. It's got to be multifaceted. And I think, you know, Time Out's been doing amazing work for the hotel industry for many years, and it's someone that, you know, in my especially before looking at, you know, Instagram and Facebook, when timeout was available, it's always that real, raw, and truthful, yeah, um, editorial that that for me was like when I was dating my wife, well no, my now wife, but when we were dating, uh we've been dating for 10 years, or married for 10 years, but prior sorry, married for five, together for 10, and in my first couple years I always looked at timeouts on where to go and why we should go there. You know? And um, yeah, it was it's great, obviously, obviously that. So from from from what I what I sort of want to understand from a timeout perspective, is when you're deciding which venues to feature in timeout, what do you tend to look for and what makes a place really stand out to you?

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, I guess there's a whole bunch of factors we kind of consider because it's like knowing Melbourne and the food and um bar scene, there's so much to choose from. So it's a really a balance of shining a light on those new and upcoming places, but also still paying respect to those established favourites that have been around for a long time, and that's kind of how we balance um the content because we need to keep that evergreen, those guides, those lists we have, we need to keep them fresh, but we also keep needing to introduce the newer spots, the hottest places in town. So um, I guess in terms of like looking at a venue and and looking, we're looking for you know what's its kind of unique selling point, and is it is it the first, is it the smallest, is it the best, is it behind a hidden fridge door, something like that, which you know is automatically you know makes interesting interesting and exciting. We look at the team behind it. Um, we look at whether a venue can provide us with great imagery because we're trying to sell that, you know, on a on our website and on social media, and so you need that instant imagery to kind of capture as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Guys, if you know your food's great, invest in your media. Oh my god, 100%. Because that helps the editor make it a lot easier in that process. Absolutely. Because that's just another stepping stone, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

That's sometimes it's just as simple as being able to tell us exactly what your venue is about in a really simple, digestible, bite-sized way. Sorry to use all those food um analogies. Um, and yeah, do you have can you tell us exactly what the team is behind it and the great imagery and and then let us kind of do the rest and and share that with our audience as well. And you know, a great social media presence helps too because I think so many people in our i in in the world now are really using social media as as like a search engine, as like a Google tool to find out where they want to go.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

You know, Google's now referencing their SEO, this big word of SEOs. Oh my gosh, search engine optimization that everyone knows about. Yeah, they're referencing social platforms now before anything, right? Yeah, so um, so truth be told, guys, invest in your media. Don't just use Chat GPT, please. No, okay. If you need to invest in a copywriter, there's some really great copywriters that you can get on you know, um, Upwork, and you get some good Australians, and you might get some people from the US. But try find someone from your local sort of area, and they could literally pitch your idea to time out. You guys accept emails all the time.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

We get many, many emails every single day.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

And you guys read them. That's the thing. People don't believe that you read the emails.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

No, we look, sometimes it takes us a little while to get through them, but we absolutely check them all because we want to find those hidden gems, and sometimes you know they'll land in our inbox. We'll be like, we've been looking forward to the book.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

DMing you a thousand times doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Look, I again I get to them eventually, but I feel like if you send an email, that's your best chance because you can shoot through all that stuff that we need to write the story, and we've got it in one package, which is perfect.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Now let's see. If you're listening to this podcast, you can message me and then I'll message you and get it out. We'll see if that works. Good connection. You like that, huh?

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Well, but you've got to hit the guide first, so make sure you hit those points and then and then I'll proof it. If my team don't like it, they'll send it back to you. All right. So I'll help you with that one because I know I'm gonna get a lot of messages after this uh saying we want to get on timeout, we want to get on timeout. So love that. Send it back to the back. If I'm gonna filter it, we'll see how we go.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Yeah, yeah, amazing.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Um for you in general, Leah, what elements turn a meal into a memorable piece?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Oh gosh, I feel like it's oh there's so many things to consider, but for me, it's it's the like the energy of this of the space, it's the people you encounter there, it's the people you go to have these meals with. Um, and I think like when all of those things combine to create like a really magical dining experience, there's like you just don't kind of forget that. I got to go to Bray last year, um, which that kind of passed a long way. And I went with my colleague Lauren, who's our food and drink writer, and we just went on this beautiful Saturday, sun was shining, we had the longest, most luxurious lunch, and um just the story behind the food there, and the the way that the staff were just so engaging. Every uh every little piece just kind of combined to like a magical moment.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Something just marry up. Like uh there's a place in the Hunter region that my wife and I go to, but it's gotta be super sunny.

unknown 10:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

I'm just trying to remember the name. Jeez, it's it's I've I've missed it now. It's a beautiful French restaurant, it's in the back of my I I'm gonna walk out of this podcast and remember it. But again, sun's gotta shine. Yeah, uh food's gotta be on point. Yeah, food's always on point, but it's just the if it's raining, it's horrible. Yeah. And there are some venues that are like that. Yeah. And and and I guess, you know, season the one thing that Melbourne does though is put on a show when it is raining.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Oh, Melbourne's a great winter city because I feel like that's when you can go down and find like cozy hidden gems and like a like a comfy. Sydney's not built for that. No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

And as a Sydney cider, I'm telling you now, we're not built for it.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

No, Melbourne's definitely got Sydney on that one, I would say. Thousand percent. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Thousand percent. Looking ahead in in what's to come, what kind of food stories do you think we'll be seeing more of, or that you hope we'll see more of in the next few years?

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah, I I really like the idea of just being out a champion and continue championing the people behind all of our like food stories. I think that's really important, is telling that human element, and I hope we can continue to do that. And I hope to see um just a lot more. I mean, it's a really tough time in the hospital industry at the moment, so I I just want to see a lot of more, like a lot more really like feel-good stories, lots of amazing openings, and a lot more kind of things that just showcase and put Melbourne on the map as kind of that culinary destination because I think we are absolutely world-class with our offerings and what we do here in Melbourne. So, continuing to put Melbourne on the map on like a global scale.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Well, let's highlight that last point and we'll we'll wrap up on this last question. But for those venue owners or chefs who want to share their story better, what advice, like if you look down this barrel of the camera right now, look, I want you to look at it as if you're talking to someone. What advice would you give them about making their message? Oh, sorry, what advice would you give them about making their message resonate?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Making the message resonate. I feel like if you've got the passion and you've got the drive behind it, um, that goes so far in like really just yeah, creating what you believe is the most wonderful dining experience and sharing that with people. And I think that's that's honestly what resonates when when you've got that love and passion and drive behind it, people will go in and they'll feel that. And they'll feel that in the food that you're producing, the vibe and energy you're creating, um, and the offering that you're serving up. So if you can do that, uh honestly, I think that goes a long way.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Lee Eagle and you've been amazing.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Oh, thanks for having me.