Episode Details

How to build world-class hospitality, train a restaurant or bar team that wins awards, and run a hospitality business that gets onto The World's 50 Best Bars list. If you're a restaurant owner, café owner or bar owner who wants to understand what separates the best in the world from everyone else — this is the episode.

Maybe Sammy isn't just one of the best bars in Sydney.

It's one of the best bars on the planet.

Seven years running on The World's 50 Best Bars list. Five-time winner of Best Bar in Australasia. The inaugural winner of the Michter's Art of Hospitality Award — a category that exists solely to recognise the world's single greatest service experience.

In this episode, co-founder Stefano Catino sits down with Tim to talk about how he and business partner Vince Lombardo actually built Maybe Sammy — plus Maybe Frank (their pizzeria), El Primo Sanchez (tequila bar in Surry Hills), the Maybe Sammy Cocktail bottled cocktail company (now on Qantas flights), and consultancy work with Dina Group and Accor Hotels.

Stefano grew up in a small touristy town in Cinque Terre, north Italy. He treats his team like a football squad. He refuses to sit down in his own bar. And he says hospitality isn't a word — it's the centre of everything he does.

This is one of the most generous masterclasses on hospitality culture and team-building we've ever recorded.

You'll hear:

00:00 – Three venues, a cocktail company, and a Maybe Group empire 

03:00 – How Stefano and Vince split roles to run multiple venues without burning out 

06:00 – Why he treats his team like a football team — players, coaches, fans, the lot 

09:00 – The two-way trial: "I want to see if I like you. I also want to see if you like me." 

15:00 – Why he'll never sit down in his own venue 

22:00 – The hospitality philosophy that won the Michter's Art of Hospitality Award 

30:00 – Working with hotel groups: why most hotels under five stars get F&B completely wrong 

40:00 – The cocktail bottle business: making world-class cocktails accessible at home and in pubs 

48:00 – Building Maybe Sammy in the middle of a quiet Sydney street — and why location wasn't the issue

Key takeaways:

• Hospitality isn't a word. It's everything you think about from the moment you wake up to the moment you finish your shift.
• Lead by example so hard your team can't stand to disappoint you.
• A two-way trial protects your culture better than any HR process. If they don't like you and your team, they're gone — fast.
• Your venue is a football team. Owners, coaches, players, fans. Every role matters. Every role needs care.
• Integrity is easy to say. It's hard to do. The bars that win awards are the ones that do it every day.
• The fancy stuff (cocktails, design, theatre) gets the press. The hospitality is what gets people back.

If you want to build a hospitality business with culture this strong, book a free Profit Finding Session with the Foodie Coaches team at https://discover.foodiecoaches.com/bac

Follow Stefano and the Maybe Group: @maybesammy @maybefrank @elprimosanchez_

Follow along: @foodie_coaches @tim.kummerfeld

New episodes every Wednesday.