10 MINUTES WITH CUBA KRZYZANOWSKI

CO-FOUNDER AND OWNER OF GINBIZ, COVENT GARDEN, GINUARY AND CG GIN CO.

Meet Cuba, owner of renowned Brisbane gin bar, Covent Garden, and co-founder, along with his partner Kellie, of multiple other gin-oriented businesses & projects — Ginuary Festival, Hottest 100 Aussie Gins, CG Gin Co. and now also…the GINBIZ magazine! From growing up in a small town of Poland, to running nightclubs on the Spanish riviera, Cuba shares how his love of travel & adventure set the course for his future in Australia, and how he became so invested in our homegrown gin industry.

Living most of his early life up to his early teens in a small Polish town close to the border of Germany, Cuba’s aspirations rarely left the realm of just enjoying the most of what’s around. That was until his growing love of basketball had him imagining himself as a future NBA star. A huge reach for a not-so-tall kid from Poland, which unsurprisingly never came to fruition, but one that speaks volumes about his personality – never afraid to dream, as no dreams are impossible, you just need to find a way to reach them.

When the time was right, he left Poland for the much warmer climate of southern Spain (if you know him well, you will also know the one thing he genuinely hates is cold weather), where he completed his Master’s Degree in International Commerce & Brand Management… only to become a bouncer at a local nightclub. Because why work 9-5 in a well-paid corporate job, if you can instead deal with drunk teens & tourists on a wild night out, right?! But, some people are just not made that way, and being in his early twenties with a love for adventure and always keen to meet new people from all over the world, he never thought twice. All those years at university didn’t go to waste though, as he soon found himself managing one of the busiest clubs in Alicante, and his love for the hospitality industry began.

Spain is also where he first tried gin, although not in the way you’d think. With its piney notes & very affordable cost (just remember this is early 2000’s Spain, and not Australia in 2022), gin was actually very commonly used in bars as a table cleaning disinfectant!

As all good things must come to an end, so did his ‘wild times’ in Spain. What’s fun for a fresh university graduate was not as fun for someone nearing his thirties, wanting to settle down somewhere a little bit less dangerous (plenty of stories there to tell, but you’d have to ask him about those yourself). So, he was on the move again, another fresh start, but this time 17,000km away from home, and more importantly — somewhere even warmer!

Looking 10 years back in hindsight, settling in Brisbane was just the right choice. It’s the place he now proudly calls home and it’s where his love of gin has come to fruition. Travelling the country from far north to deep south, from Sydney to Perth, there were two things that would always blow his mind — how genuine & helpful people could be, and how dedicated they were to following their passions. Many of those trips involved a stop (or a few) at a small local bar, winery and distillery, and that’s where he decided it was about time to get back into the game of the hospitality industry — but this time, doing it his own way and for all the right reasons.

There’s nothing more gratifying than doing something you love and making it your everyday job, especially one that can provide a stable family income. But for some, that’s still not enough. Some want it to have a greater meaning. It may be helping other young entrepreneurs reach their own goals and potential, supporting the local community, or maybe just putting a little smile on other people’s faces. Opening Covent Garden was always about Cuba following his passions – for hospitality, for gin, for good food and good ol’ customer service. Interestingly enough, it is also one of only a selected few coeliac safe restaurants in Australia, serving fully gluten free food along with hundreds of gins. Why? Because why not! Why not do something that will actually mean the world to thousands of people who otherwise struggle to dine out without a risk of having a life-threatening allergic reaction?

The same principles apply to all the other projects he has been involved in ever since – doing something that he can be proud of, all whilst giving others a chance to benefit from it, too. And so, there was the Ginuary Festival – launched back in 2019 – a celebration of the local gin community, bringing together local distillers, gin drinkers, and everyone else with gin always on their mind.

Following that there was CG Gin Co. — Covent Garden’s online expansion — which launched soon after covid forced the venue to close. It not only gave Cuba and Kellie (the other half of the CG family) something to keep their minds busy, but more importantly it made quarantine a lot more bearable for many local gin fans and kept the gin flowing.

And, because life is never busy enough with a two-year-old and a newborn just around the corner, Cuba and Kellie thought it would be a great idea to share their collective knowledge and skills with more people from the gin industry. How? By throwing themselves into yet another project — that’s how GINBIZ was born. Luckily, this time they’ve got help…or so he says jokingly!