Episode Details

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 coming back.

In this episode, Martin sits down with Tim to talk through what it actually takes to build bars that last — the landlord lessons, the location rules, the obsessive craft standards, and how he built a business that runs without him for months at a time.

You'll hear:

00:00 – From Argentina to Brisbane — how Martin ended up in bars 

02:00 – The 10-year lease rule and why most operators think too small 

05:00 – Paying a year's rent upfront on his first bar (and what it taught him) 

08:00 – Why you should never take over an existing venue's location 

12:00 – Building a specialty cocktail bar in a city that wasn't ready for it 

14:00 – How knowledge trickles down through a team without Chinese whispers 

16:00 – Staff who left for bigger pay — and came back within a year 

18:00 – The R&D warehouse, the $15K ice machine and why craft is the business model 

25:00 – Finding the right landlord (and why it matters more than the location) 

35:00 – The block ice business nobody saw coming 

53:00 – Cutting ice, losing fingers and taking safety seriously 

56:00 – Three and a half months off a year — and why the bars thrive because of it

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Follow along: @foodie_coaches @tim.kummerfeld

New episodes every Wednesday.