An Engaging 10 Minutes with Kierain Bunton.

Sometimes, it can be so hard to communicate the essence of a business to someone who’s not been there. Kierain, our Venue Manager, does not seem to have this issue. Read on for some insightful pieces on the soul of The Inn.

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Who are you?

OK. My name is Kierain Bunton, and I am the venue manager here at Edgars Inn.

What are three words to describe yourself?

Um outrageous, Outgoing, and fun.

What's your background in the hospitality industry? How did you make your way here?

Well, I've been in hospitality now for 14 years. Um, I started off in a very unlikely place.

I broke my leg skateboarding, and I was at a pub having a beer with some of my friends, and one of the chefs had quit, like, on the spot. Just rage quit. Walked out. And, um, someone came out and was like:

“Does anyone know how to make nachos?” And I said,

“I can make nachos”. So, I went into the kitchen. Um, and I never looked back.

What venues have you worked in the past few years?

What venues haven't I worked in? um, King O'Malley's in Tuggeranong, PJS, (which is where that story's from), um Otis, which is another old like trash bikie bar.

The old transit bar, New transit bar… Uh, Edgar's Obviously… Shorty's, Academy, Mr Wolf, Provini, Lola's, Assembly, Lazy Su, Such and Such…

I'm sure I'm missing a whole bunch as well.

What's a typical day in your role as venue manager for Edgars Inn?

I like to keep my finger on the pulse. So even if I'm doing a lot of my work upstairs on the floor in a restaurant, I like to go down and make my presence known downstairs in the pub. Make a coffee, Have a chat, catch up with everyone. Go poke my head into the kitchen, see how the chefs are going. Make sure the day's been going smooth so far, depending on what time I've got in there… make someone else a coffee. Serve a couple of customers say what's up, and then just do the usual venue check that I would do. Make sure the restaurant is looking presentable, make sure the lights are right, music's right, place feels good. Everyone's in a good mood. That's probably the first thing that I would do.

And then usually I spend a lot of my like on the job hours or on the tools. As we like to say, I spend a lot most of those hours in the restaurant, on the floor here where I'm waiting tables, running food, um, and trying to add value where I can.

Cool. And what's your favourite part of your job?

OK, favourite part of my job, Probably the fact that every day is different. I love that I get to deal with people day in and day out. I'm very drawn to that part of the job. I [also love that I] get to work with people who love food, booze and people as much as I do. That's probably my favourite part.

OK, now for the exciting part, how do you view The Inn?

This is worth some background.

I've come in and out of working for this company. I've gone off and done a whole bunch of other things during my tenure -working for Frank and with Zac and all that kind of stuff - …

So before I came in, I had very much an opinion of what The Inn was, and that was based on my experience as a punter, and, somewhat as, you know, doing shifts here and there.

To start off with it, I very much thought that it was fine dining. But as I've come back this time round, it's just like a great neighbourhood restaurant. A little neighbourhood bistro. Um, it's fun. It's moody, it's super sincere, it’s genuine, it’s f*ckin’ tasty, its consistent, and its just fun..

I think it’s a really fun space to be in and I think its super unassuming aswell.

I think most people that come through here - whether it’s their first time or their tenth time here - they’ll tell you they had a great time. They’ll tell you that it was fun, they’ll tell you that it was sincere and genuine and I think that comes from a lot of things… it comes from the way the venue was put together before we came along, but also like, the, group that we’ve fostered here this year. I think that, the personalities that make up this room are tied in to the experience that people have and its because we have those people in here that I think that people have these consistently great experiences.

What is your favourite guest interation, ever?

[Pause].

You know what.. I don't know if my brain works like that. I think that, when I think of “The Inn” in my brain, it's this, like, compilation of everything that's good. I think we're spoiled because on the day to day we do have so much fun, not just as a team…

Like with other people that I work with, sure, but with the customers as well. And I think that boundary gets crossed in the best way all the time. I think the customer is brought into the staff's jokes and the staff's experience and vice versa all the time.

And I it would be impossible for me to isolate one of those things. I just think that that idea is the thing that I like. Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely. It's not just one thing, and that's why I like it so much.

Cool. Any final words for people that haven’t been in yet?  

Get the f*ck in here, and let us do our thing.

I promise you, you'll have a good time. I know you will. It's almost impossible not to have a good time. The food's great. The people are great. The music's great. Just get the f*ck in here. What are you doing?

So good. Thanks, Kierain.