The Somerset in Millicent

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!

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’.

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 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!

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.

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 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.

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!

ALEX

After leaving school and working in commercial catering kitchens, a sense of adventure kicked in. I spent time in the outback and Flinders Ranges learning to cook and backing myself with no idea what I was doing, but youthful confidence and reading how to make soup, and a heap of hard work got me through. Three years spent with Rob and Di at the Transcontinental instilled the pub basics in me and the desire to one day run my own hotel. Then an adventure to the UK beckoned with the opportunity to broaden my skills, and upon returning to Adelaide and a brief stint with Bud at the Goodie, Rob and Di called on me once again to join them at the Criterion.

After its sale, I joined Mark at the Fountain Inn for a very successfully six year tenure that created the opportunity to move our now young family to the country to take the reins at the Somerset.

THE SOMERSET HOTEL

Mark Pascoe was happy to back us in our own venture and we began our search around the Clare and Barossa valleys – wanting to be close to a wine region. One of Mark’s investments, the Somerset Hotel, was not performing well and held up the opportunity for him to back us.

So, we came up with the hairbrained scheme to offer to buy into the existing partnership at the Somerset.

If we knew then what we know now, we would not have gone near the place. But now we know we could not have had a better and more rewarding learning curve.

We have always been of the belief that every part of the hotel has to hold its own; no part of business can rely on another to make it viable.

The kitchen required a Ramsey style intervention, with Alex donning the uniform he had hoped to retire and lifting meal numbers by over 1000 meals a week (and yes he still wears it 12 years later!). We pulled thousands of dollars of out-of-code stock from the bottleshop and rebuilt it into an entity that supports three full-time staff in a single lane. It took three years of shameless begging, extending credit and juggling payments, but we finally got the place back on its feet.

We went out a major limb four years ago and revamped the dining room. We just wanted to make it nicer for our customers. It led to 40% growth overnight. This drove the bars and gaming room too.

So we furnished up the Sov Bar, repainted the entrance and hall, repainted the gaming room… then COVID-19 hit.

Now in our 12th year and having just employed our sixth apprentice at the Somerset, the food legacy is well founded, training an ambitious team with well cooked, value for money pub fare.

We’ve never been prouder of anything than what we do today.

Thanks to Amanda and Alex for sharing their amazing story and looking to see some Tom Cruise and Australia’s own Brian Brown cocktail moves from Amanda when next in Millicent. Sorry Brian, it was all about Tom, let’s be real!

The Somerset only recently won the local business Community Spirit award, which is no surprise knowing the amount of support provided to various entities within the region. Just another reason to drop in and say hi when next in Millicent.