Aussies Abroad

AUSSIES ABROAD GRANT SMILLIE

Owner/Founder, EP&LP, Los Angeles

FROM MELBOURNE DJ AND BAR-OWNER TO AUSSIE EX-PAT IN LOS ANGELES, GRANT SMILLIE HAS TURNED THE CITY OF DREAMS ON ITS HEAD WITH HIS DOWN TO EARTH BRAND OF AUSSIE HOSPITALITY. HE TALKS ABOUT HIS SUCCESS WITH LA’S MOST FASHIONABLE ROOFTOP BAR EP&LP AND HIS BURGEONING LA-BASED HOSPITALITY BUSINESS THE BOTANICAL GROUP THAT IS POISED TO OPEN ANOTHER THREE ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE AREA IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS.

When did you open EP&LP?

It’s year five this year and things are still working!

Have you opened any other establishments in the US?

We are opening a café in four weeks called Strings of Life as well as working on another enormous project in Hollywood called Grand Master Recorders set to open in August. That will be about one and a half times the size of EP&LP. We have another venue we are doing in downtown LA which will come online in late NovemberDecember as well. Plus we are renovating Pony Fish Island that we still have in Melbourne. There we are going back to the drawing board and starting all over again. This year there are a lot of projects and a lot of spinning wheels but all good things.

You obviously have a lot of good people surrounding you assisting in that process?

Absolutely. You are only ever as good as the people you employ - as much as you think you have the creative, the desire and the acumen to bring these things to life.

You started your on-premise career in Melbourne but prior to that you were spinning discs as a DJ. Tell us a bit about that.

Yes. That was 15 to 20 years of my life playing music. I got tired. It was taxing on the body and I never really got to go home. I saw a lot of lonely old men who were pretty wealthy and successful but didn’t see the need to progress beyond that DJ path. Not for everybody but for me personally that is what I needed to do. I guess the creative part of writing music you can take with you into the hospitality trade such as what a space looks like and what are the design outcomes that fulfill human needs. I think this is where you can translate any creative business that is equal or otherwise into the hospitality space with a bit of thought and consideration.

What learnings did you take from Australia into LA? What translated?

Nothing! (laughs)

If you are talking about what is different between Australia and LA or America it is absolutely everything from the most basic of things such as the pour is 45 ml instead of 30 ml to the perceptions of service. For example in Australia we have a person in a section who can do everything, in America they are very particular about their job titles

and what they will and won’t do.

The only thing that translates from a business perspective is the importance of the location. It needs to have something that is unreplicable. Pony Fish Island is in the middle of the Yarra River while EP&LP is the biggest rooftop bar in West Hollywood. That gave us a bit of inspiration and protection in the market place because they (rooftops) are difficult to come by. It took two years to get the permits to do what we did. It was a challenge but when someone opens up next door and it’s the brand new toy on the block everyone wants to go to at the potential detriment of your business, it allows you to have a more robust business strategy because people will still want to come. Even if they don’t dine with us they will come and have a drink after their meal or beforehand. We end up being a catch- all to every other business in the area.

What are the most important factors about keeping a venue successful long term when so many fall by the wayside?

Again it’s location, location, location. Beyond that, I think sometimes you can become complacent. It’s about maintaining that energy and excitement that was there when you first opened and making sure you reinvest in your venue because hopefully your venue gets beaten by the ‘animals’ that we call our consumers just through sheer volume. If you let it fall away then it doesn’t keep that same shine and interest that people bought in with you in the first place. It is really important to evolve your business and make sure it feels different, even if someone hasn’t been for six months they can come back and look around and say there is something new, interesting and different here. More so for the locals, because they come often and they want to see an evolution of the space. Otherwise, they will move on and migrate. And then I guess the third part is we go out of our way to find the best people. You need the best people you can possibly afford and then spend more because it will come back in spades. Everyone’s got different budgets, and some want to rip every dollar out of their business. I think that is pretty unrealistic and naïve to think you can rip out the coffers every year and not give anything back.

Did you have any unexpected challenges/surprises when you arrived in LA? Would you have done anything differently if you knew what you know now?

Yes. I wouldn’t have done it. (laughs) No, that’s not true. Dave Combes, my business partner and I had three or four phone numbers in our Rolodex that were locals on the ground. We were relying on third party contractors to build our venue. We had to build every single contact from the ground up, and some were dodgy as shit. If we had on-ground knowledge it would have helped. Then there was the budget. It is always going to go over, it is just a question of how much. In terms of the locals - in Australia, you want people to interact at a bar. You want them to bump into each another and strike up a conversation. Americans tend to want their own real estate and their own booth and don’t necessarily want to talk to other people. We needed to make sure we got the blend right of what the Australian way is and the way the Americans have always had it.

That’s interesting about the real estate grabbing because that is starting to feed into the Australian on-premise market here now.

Yes, it’s a real estate thing but at the same time you have to be mindful that it doesn’t come at the cost of the locals because you don’t want a bunch of dropkicks coming in and spending one-time money at the expense of people who would otherwise sit down every Saturday night. You have to be mindful – is it a land grab or is it a long play?

Are there any noticeable trends in America that would be of interest to the Australian on-premise market?

We are finding provenance is taking hold with tequila and mescal such as small-batch and family-run places, especially here in California. Our number one selling spirit by far is tequila with vodka at a distant second. People want to know more about where it comes from and the sustainability of that product. In Australia, unfortunately we grew up in a culture that was pretty terrible massproduced tequila, and now people are asking where it is from and why which is great

What is your signature drink at EP&LP?

Our number one selling cocktail sells at a ratio of two to one. We sold 55,000 last

year! It is called ‘Where Love Lives’ and is a mescal cocktail with damiana, passionfruit, guava, Thai chilli and lime. It is a take on a margarita with smoky notes at the front and sweet and sour notes at the back end. It’s quite a well-balanced drink. You would think it’s a bit too sophisticated for the general punter but tequila, mescal and California are best mates so it just flies off the shelves.

Being the Aussie bar in LA, do you stock Aussie products?

You know, it’s funny. When we first started, we wanted to be this Australian-owned venue that was American in its culture and DNA yet we were perceived as the Aussies over here anyway. When we realized that we realized we needed to make sure we integrated Aussie product. Pretty quickly we got the full Four Pillars range, and we promote that as one of the world’s best gins. Mr Black we always put in our Espresso Martinis even though over here they think that if you add coffee to alcohol you have rocks in your head. It just isn’t a thing here. We do a lot of wines from all around Australia and then a couple of local Aussie beers. It is hard for guys to get distribution here, but we do have Four Pines.

Describe your clientele?

It is a mixed bag. We have a local mix. We have a definite base of Aussie tourists who want a soft landing when they come to LA and a similar kind of hospitality as back home. We get a lot of the event-based community that is just part of Hollywood. We have a rooftop cinema that we launched a couple of years ago as part of our rooftop programming that increased our footprint by 500 metres and seats 150. That allows us the opportunity to do launch parties for companies such as Netflix and Hulu and Paramount. You will see the odd celebrity coming into the venue who live around the area and don’t mind having a drink. Any given night could be anything.

What do you love most about what you do?

The creative part of it - walking into a venue, looking at it, having an idea and bringing it to fruition. Equally, picking the right people to make this vision come to life because I can’t do everything.

You have relocated from your hometown Melbourne to Hollywood. What do you love about living in La La Land?

It is Utopia over here. We are in winter now, and it’s 23 degrees. And then in summer, it doesn’t get beyond 33 degrees. You can go skiing in the morning in the mountains and then be swimming in the ocean in the afternoon. It’s the lifestyle, the healthy vibe, the variety of people and the population. California has more people than Australia. It allows you to grow your business aggressively. On the downside, the traffic can be annoying at times; you pick your battles.

Your drink of choice at the moment?

We just partnered with a brand new beer company called Calidad. A friend of mine started it. It’s a Mexican-style lager brewed in Santa Barbara. My thing is doing collaborative projects. We just did an EP&LP special barrel-aged 1942 Don Julio, and we are finalizing a special LA release from Four Pillars. I just love something you can change five or ten percent, get involved in a process then I feel I can be passionate about it and have the confidence to stand behind it.

What do you miss about home?

Obviously, I miss family and friends of course, but after two days in Melbourne where I have been cold, wet and blown over I realize why I changed countries!

GREAT BOURBON COMES FROM EXPERIENCE. HAPPY 225TH BIRTHDAY JIM BEAM!

IN 1795 JACOB BEAM INVENTED BOURBON FROM DISTILLING CORN; 225 YEARS LATER JIM BEAM IS A HOUSEHOLD NAME. THAT’S OVER TWO CENTURIES OF CONSUMERS ENJOYING THE UNIQUE TASTE OF JIM BEAM BOURBON. THE REST YOU COULD SAY IS HISTORY. THIS IS HOW THE JIM BEAM STORY UNFOLDS...

Perhaps the best decision Jacob Beam ever made was to sell his bourbon. He sold his first barrel of Old Jake Beam Sour Mash in 1795, just three years after Kentucky became a state.

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In 1894, James Beauregard Beam, or Jim to his friends and family, took over distilling duties until prohibition brought it to a halt in 1920. To support his family, Jim Beam took a shot at coal mining and citrus farming. Fotunately for us, he wasn’t any good either.

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On top of Jim Beam’s 225th year, 2020 has also seen the filling of the sixteen millionth barrel since the prohibition. Locally the brand recognizes 225 years is a moment to not only celebrate where we’ve been but look ahead to the next 225 years with our extended Jim Beam family. Let’s just say we’ve got plans; upweighted media support, a packaging refresh on the RTD range bringing to life the brand’s updated visual identity, as well as continuing the family tradition of creating new ways of drinking bourbon.

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