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W I T H
V A U G H A N Y
The Somerset in Millicent rockstar stint at the Stokehouse in St Kilda. Once returning to Adelaide I spent some time at the Barreau’s Excelsior and The Office on weekends, before transitioning into restaurants, starting in the dining room of the Lion Hotel. This was followed by stints at the Yellow Cello and d’Arry’s Veranda before settling into the privilege of a few years with Frank and Maria Favaro at Chianti Classico whilst I transitioned into uni life to begin my wine marketing degree.
As promised, please enjoy the Somerset Hotel story told by publicans, Amanda and Alex Gordon, in their own words.
AMANDA We’re the cliché ‘chef meets waitress at the local pub’ story. I was having a couple at my local, the Wheatsheaf in Thebarton, when I got chatting to a fellow bar fly. We ended up drinking whiskies, but as he was inexperienced in malts, I wouldn’t let him have a nip of Ardbeg. Four years later we named our daughter Isla!
come home with a job tomorrow, don’t bother coming home.’ I spent that evening punching out a resume on the Commodore 64 and the next morning headed straight for my most favourite pub, the London Tavern to ask for a job!
I had started waitressing at a local reception house when I was 16, but as with everyone from my era, I was captivated by bartending, thanks to Tom Cruise in the 1988 movie ‘Cocktail’, and could not imagine anything more wonderful than living a life of ‘Cocktails and Dreams’.
That was an eye opening few years with gaming machines in their infancy, opening breakfast while it was still dark outside, closing the night club 20 hours later, corporate lunches, babysitting husbands whilst their wives shopped, cooking on weeknights and male revue shows on Saturday nights! The friendships I made are still some of my strongest and Joe and Wendy Budin will forever be two of the people I love and respect the most.
Well, reality struck when I decided to take a gap year in 1994. After two days of lazing on the couch, my father told me ‘…if you don’t
I left working for Joe twice; once to try my luck in Brisvegas in the city’s Victory Hotel and later when he owned the Halfway Hotel, for a
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When the itchy feet later invaded, it was off to the Apothecary for a few months before I was offered a move into retail at Baily & Baily St Georges, under the regime of Woolworths. Several months with them gave me a desperate thirst to work for an independent, so I tried my hand at online retailing. This was not for me! One night I was having a few beers with my dad at the Avoca, when owner Bud Goldsworthy passed through the bar. I’d had the pleasure of meeting Bud at the Lion and Chianti several times over the years, and he offered me a position at Goodwood Cellars. After a few casual shifts, I was offered an assistant manager’s position, gaining retail and buying skills under Phil Hardy. Two years later, I had the privilege to run the shop myself. My next move was to take the restaurant manager’s job at the Avoca; only to find out I was pregnant just before the position started. After maternity leave, I returned to work in an admin and accounts role, which probably taught me the most important skills I ever learned to run a hotel – managing money! Back to Contents
