Hospitality consulting & recruitment

You're juggling eight things at once. We help you catch them.

Brand, money, location, space, menu, supply, systems, people. Most operators nail three or four and bleed in the rest. We find the leaks, fix what matters first, and build a venue that runs without running you.

Book a Pantry Check — $750 See the 8 ingredients

Fully credited toward your next step · Virtual-first, Australia-wide

The framework

The 8 Ingredients

It's how we look at any venue — café, restaurant, bar or group. Each ingredient gets checked. Nothing gets guessed.

01

Brand

Why guests choose you over the place next door — and why they come back. Your story, your look, your reputation online and in the room. Get it right and you stop competing on price alone.

02

Money

The numbers that quietly decide everything: margins, pricing, labour and food cost, break-even. We make them visible so you're running the venue on facts, not gut feel and guesswork.

03

Location

The site, the catchment and the lease you can actually live with. Whether you're choosing a new spot or making sense of the one you're in, location quietly sets the ceiling on everything else.

04

Space

A floor and kitchen that work as hard as you do. How the room flows, where the bottlenecks hide, and how many covers you can turn before the wheels start to come off.

05

Menu

Smaller, sharper and more profitable. Complexity kills margins and burns out your kitchen — so we cut the dishes that don't earn their place and double down on the ones that do.

06

Supply

Suppliers, stock and waste under control, not the other way around. Better buying, tighter par levels and a lot less money quietly going in the bin at the end of each week.

07

Systems

The rosters, POS, prep lists and processes that keep the place running even when you're not standing in it. If it only works because you remember it, it isn't a system yet.

08

People

The right team, hired well and kept longer. Training, clear structure and a culture people don't want to leave — because turnover is one of the most expensive problems in hospitality.

How it works

Keep every plate spinning

01

Check the pantry

A structured diagnostic of your venue across all eight ingredients. One clear report, priorities ranked, no fluff.

02

Run the sprint

Eight weeks fixing what moves profit and takes pressure off you and your team.

03

Keep the pantry full

Ongoing advisory for operators who want a partner in the business — not a report left on the shelf.

Recruitment

Recruitment is built backwards. We turned it around.

Most agencies get paid when someone starts — not when they stay. So the incentive is speed, not fit, and you wear the cost when it doesn't work out. Ours is retention-first: we screen every candidate against the way your venue actually runs — your systems, your pace, your culture — and we back it with a guarantee that actually means something.

  • One flat fee — 12.5% + GST of first-year salary, published right here, no negotiation games
  • Free replacement if they leave inside six months — our incentive is the stay, not the start
  • Kitchen brigades, venue managers and senior placements, right across Australia
  • Virtual interviews with self-scheduling — no phone tag, no wasted GM hours

Three ways we help you hire

01 · ONE ROLE

Single Placement

One key role, filled end to end. From commis and kitchen hand through to head chef, venue manager and senior leadership. Best when you've got a single gap that's costing you.

02 · MULTI-HIRE

Venue Launch

Opening or scaling fast? We build a whole brigade or floor team to your timeline, screened to work together from day one — not a scramble of one-off hires.

03 · ONGOING

Talent Partner

Ongoing recruitment for groups and multi-venue operators. A retained pipeline of pre-screened people, so you're never starting from zero when someone moves on.

Start a recruitment brief

Worth your time

From the pass

The shows and the newsletter we make for operators — all approved by Samy, our sandwich. We're aware a hospitality advisory probably shouldn't have a mascot. We have one anyway.

Samy the Sandwich, the Open Pantry Co. mascot

Podcast · On break

The Prep List

Your under-10-minute Monday hit of hospitality insight — one trend, one tool, one operator move, one smart question for your team. On a short break; the back catalogue is all still worth your time.

Listen →

Podcast

The Ingredients

The podcast that gets to the heart of what makes a venue work. Each episode breaks down one essential ingredient — from brand and fitout to team culture and menu design — through real conversations with operators, makers and thinkers across the industry.

Watch →

Newsletter · Fortnightly

Sandwich Press

Honest, practical takes on running a venue, pressed into one email every fortnight. Quick to read and no filler — just the thinking and the moves worth your time.

Subscribe →

Start here

Book a Pantry Check.

We scan your venue before we ever speak, then work through it with you. One page, one clear move, no 30-page report. The $750 is fully credited toward whatever you do next.

  • An outside-in scan of your venue across all eight ingredients — done before the session
  • A 90-minute working session on what we found: what's working, what's leaking, what to fix first
  • One page and one clear next move — plus a 30-day follow-up to keep you honest

Prefer to ask a question first? Send it through the form — or email us at Connect@openpantryco.com.

OPEN PANTRY CO.ORDER DOCKET — NEW CLIENT
TABLEYOURS
1× PANTRY CHECK$750
PRE-SESSION SCANALL 8 ING.
WORKING SESSION90 MIN
30-DAY FOLLOW-UPINCL.
CREDITED TO NEXT STEP−$750
Send it to the kitchen