Scott’s Spot

from Hotel SA May 2021

Government Support

Scott Vaughan

Hello all and welcome to the May edition of Scott’s Spot. This month’s edition will cover the usual short stories, photos and random observations over the last month.

This month, the spotlight will be on the Golden Grain Pinnaroo publicans, Jessie and Leigh Simon in what is a wonderful insight into their journey into the hotel industry along with the history of the hotel and township of Pinnaroo.

REGIONAL MEETINGS

Regionals are in full swing starting with a massive turnout at the Beachport Hotel in the South East followed by another fantastic event at the North Laura Hotel in the Mid North. Thanks to both venues for hosting the events along with all the members and corporate partners who made the days both enjoyable and informative as they were the first meetings in these regions since 2019.

Now, I would like to thank Lynton Cram the trailblazing publican from the Pines Hotel in Tarpeena who agreed to a short pilot video that was uploaded to the AHA|SA socials. He was an absolute natural so look out for more videos over the coming month as I do have members lined up to participate and would love a call for more participation as 2021 rolls on.

AHA|SA OFFICE NEWS

Ian Horne had quite an interesting flight to Mount Gambier on the day of the Beachport regional meeting. At 9.59am I received a text from Ian advising that he was in the air, circling Mount Gambier due to heavy fog, and would not arrive at the meeting until 11.30am due to the hour drive after landing.

With the meeting starting at 11am, my thoughts were to buy a bit of time before starting the meeting, then his grand entrance would be made. However, while my brain was ticking over, slowly of course, I received another message advising of further delays and that Ian would not be making the meeting at all. I was now a little edgy as I did not have a copy of the presentation, and members were starting to arrive.

As luck would have it, Lorraine Kranz, Gaming Care officer for the South East along with Didier Vollerin, Liquor Licensing and Gaming Advisor arrived and proceeded to run the meeting with minimal assistance from myself and did a fantastic job.

Now Ian did have his grand entrance arriving at 12.45pm just as lunch was being served to a round of applause. Can you believe it?

Below is a photo of Ian sharing his frustration with the pilots at being late, while a quick snap was taken of me upon hearing the news.

THE GOLDEN GRAIN HOTEL

The Mallee town of Pinnaroo is in a buzz at the moment after winning the Agricultural town of the year, and down the main street you will find, the Golden Grain Hotel!

Owned by Jessie and Leigh Simon and helped run by Jessie’s mum Karen, the Golden Grain Hotel is Pinnaroo’s oldest hotel. Built in 1906 and re-established in 1913 it has had name changes and all. Originally the Land of Promise Hotel, it burnt down and was rebuilt in 1913 as the two-storey building we have today, it was then named the Commercial Hotel. It was renamed again in 1958 as the Golden Grain Hotel for reasons unknown.

History has it that the Golden Grain was a large railway hotel, quite often entertaining the likes of train goers and stockmen on horses on their way through the Mallee.

Jessie and Leigh are the hotel’s 37th publicans. Jessie has been involved in the hotel for over 10 years! With a hotel background from an early age, she grew up in the pub scene with her father managing hotels throughout the Adelaide Hills including the Crafers and Uraidla. Knee high to a grasshopper and eager to learn, you could always find Jessie in the kitchen helping cook or cleaning. In 2005 Jessie undertook part of a Chef’s apprenticeship and thrived in her new venture.

In 2010 Jessie started working at the Golden Grain Hotel in the kitchen and when needed in the bar. After a few years of part time work and having her children, Jessie was offered to purchase the lease at the “Grain” in 2017 and Leigh jumped in for the ride!

Leigh and Jessie are parents to two boys aged 10 and 7. They have managed to juggle hospitality and family life with Leigh taking more responsibility at home and Jessie diving straight into hotel management life.

Karen, who also has a hospitality background, moved to Pinnaroo to help Jessie out and they began their next chapter in hospitality. A true family affair in 2017 and 2018 Jessie, Karen, Jessie’s brother Jimmy and her Sister Ella all worked together at the hotel along with their team of staff and lots of help from Leigh’s family as well.

“It hasn’t all been smooth sailing but we take each day as it comes.”

The Golden Grain Hotel is a large pub with country hospitality and is very family friendly. There is a front bar, sports bar, pokie room, small dining room and large dining room including a kids room, with a grassed beer garden area adjacent to the hotel. They have a great team of local staff and are open with meals available seven days a week.

“Food is a huge thing for us at The Grain. We pride ourselves on our broad range of meals and have theme nights four nights a week including steak night, schnitzel night, burger night and pizza night. We aim to make a lot of our menu items ourselves including our pizzas and burger patties. We even came top 12 in the AHA|SA burger challenge in 2019 with our “give me the lot” burger!” said Jessie.

2020 brought their biggest challenge yet along with the rest of the country with COVID-19. Being a cross border community and on the main highway from VIC/NSW and SA, they were devastated to have to close down and be separated from cross border friends, family and co-workers.

With so much unknown, staff were sent home and as a family adapted to a new way of daily life introducing a pre-ordering system for takeaway meals. The Hotel averaged approximately 300+ meals a week through the lockdowns and by week three needed most of their staff back to keep up with the demands!

“The support from our local community was unbelievable and we thank our little country town so much for all they did to support us through the hard times.”

“We were very lucky to come out of lockdowns with support from the border control army members and police. We continued our massive meal trade and enjoyed having customers back in the hotel for meals and drinks.”

The 10 motel rooms have also been busy since coming out of lockdowns. As well as working the bar most days of the week Karen started updating the accommodation rooms and making them a little more comfortable and modern while in lockdown and has been continuing since.

Jessie and Leigh look forward to the future and are now making plans to bring back raffles along with the social club that has been on hiatus since March 2020. A new menu is in the works and they are really look forward to

local sports starting up again. Next time you are in the Mallee region of SA, drop by the Golden Grain Hotel and say hi! Enjoy the photos below of the family along with historic photos of the Golden Grain.