Sunshine Coast hospitality tycoon hopes to rebuild venues with Eat Club app post-Covid

The owner of multiple Sunshine Coast hospitality venues hopes a new app will help fast track the rebuild of his popular businesses after Covid-19 restrictions.

The owner of four Sunshine Coast hospitality venues is aiming to rebuild his businesses with mobile app Eat Club after a downturn in trade from Covid-19 restrictions.

Joseph Sandagon owns Good Bar, Juan Fifty, Drunken Dumpling, and Verona Pizza and Wine Bar and has registered them on the digital promotions platform which recently launched in the region.

Mr Sandagon bought his first venue, Good Bar, in 2015 and turned its fortunes around for a business turning over on average $15,000 to $20,000 a week when he acquired it to more than $75,000 in weekly earnings at its peak.

Since Covid-19 he said the business’s weekly revenue had nosedived to about $30,000 and was down by 50 to 60 per cent on pre-Covid figures across his venues in total.

While each of his restaurants still remain profitable, Mr Sandagon said he hoped offering discounts through the Eat Club app would encourage more customers to dine out and increase his patronage.

Good Bar manager Emily Roberts and Verona Pizza & Wine Bar owner Joseph Sandagon.

“When we have vacant tables there was no way of us showing that they were available but now that we have Eat Club, instead of taking nothing we can still make 70 per cent from them by offering 30 per cent off, so it’ll allow us to turn over money we otherwise wouldn’t be,” Mr Sandagon said.

“It will increase our net. Marketing is about fishing and if you can grow the amount of different types of people to see your venue this is a good platform because people are coming to it to try somewhere new and it’s up to you to entice them.”

He said the app would help draw in dinner guests to Drunken Dumpling, which he opened in early 2020, originally as a late night bar and eatery and introduced refined Asian-inspired dishes to better adapt to Covid-19 restrictions.

Mr Sandagon said he also planned to use the app to build a late evening crowd at his newest restaurant, Verona Pizza and Wine Bar, which opened in September.

Verona Pizza and Wine Bar opened at Stockland Birtinya in September. Sous Chef Alnon Paggabao and manager Jack Wolf. Picture: Patrick Woods

“Everyone is so used to being on their phones. You can love it or hate it but it’s the way of the world now,” Mr Sandagon said.

“We’re excited to see if it works for the Sunshine Coast because I know in the big cities it goes off so I’m hoping it does here.”

Eat Club was co-founded by Pan Koutlakis, Ben Tyler, Matt Cantelo and world-renowned chef Marco Pierre White in Melbourne in 2017, before they shifted their head office to Brisbane.

Eat Club enables venue managers to set a number of discounted rates for up to 48 hours on available seats for customers using the app that would otherwise be left unfilled.

Manager Jack Wolf at Verona Pizza and Wine Bar at Stocklands, Birtinya. Picture: Patrick Woods

Customers redeem offers through the app and can be used for dine in or takeaway orders.

Eat Club co-founder Ben Tyler said Eat Club currently had about 50 registered restaurants on the Sunshine Coast which they saw as a growing market for their platform.

“It’s a really good platform for customers to discover restaurants they’ve never heard of,” Mr Tyler said.

“We want to increase the vibrancy in the areas we are operating in, we want to get more people out of the house and into restaurants and there’s a really good flow-on effect for the hospitality industry.”

Originally published as Sunshine Coast hospitality tycoon hopes to rebuild venues with Eat Club app post-Covid