Hospitality milestone

Sorrentos Cafe owner getting used to life as the boss
It was back in 2004 when Amanda Hudson (pictured) first set foot inside Mount Gambier’s Sorrentos Café. She was a young hospitality star on the rise and when you take a look at her resume, Sorrentos has taken up 12 years of her working life.

Now, though, she is the boss, having bought the business from her former mentor Lachlan Mutton 12 months ago and after riding the highs and lows of any business owner, she has gratefully celebrated her 12 month anniversary at the helm.

Lachlan was looking for Amanda to return to the fold as manager and then over a beer or two at Little Rippa Brewery the conversation turned to ownership.

“I didn’t think it would be possible,” Amanda said. “But my bank manager was amazing and it was all sorted in a couple of months.

“It really was just the right fit, a scary fit but it does fit.” Aside from a six month stint in real estate, hospitality has been Amanda’s life.

“I just didn’t like being stuck in an office – it was that simple,” she said.

After her initial tenure at Sorrentos, she moved to Adelaide where she worked in pubs before returning after five years to work side-by-side with her rather Barrie at the Blue Lake Golf Club.

She then worked with another Sorrentos alumni Alex Marlow at the Mount Gambier Hospital kiosk. Since October 19 last year, though, she has been back at Sorrentos and calling the shots. As most new business owners discover, there are some steep learning curves when you take the reins.

“I can run the front of house for anyone,” she said. “It’s the back of house, the book keeping, the money that freaks me out. I have definitely make some mistakes but you learn and I am definitely smarter about things than I was 12 months ago. You live and you learn.”

Now her biggest challenge is patience as she looks to create her vision for the Bay Road café. “There’s so much more I want to do,” Amanda said. “And there’s the challenge of attracting and retaining staff, which I think will always be a challenge in hospitality.”

Setting up a wine bar area for tourists and locals alike is high on the agenda, given she has already made sure the win list is almost entirely local, showcasing wines from the Limestone Coast.

And there are those painting jobs and updating of the décor but she knows you have to work your way through those to-do lists. Her first three months business was booming but then restrictions returned to the hospitality sector courtesy of Delta and those doubts about her decision to buy bubbled to the surface.

“We are definitely back on track again, though, and looking forward to a great summer,” she said.

There are the Friday night happy hours with cocktail specials and live music, an initiative she championed in Mount Gambier, and the burgeoning bookings at the function centre 5290. “It has also been good to see some of the familiar faces from my time at Sorrentos coming back,” she said.

“I have to thank all the customers and staff for all their support in this first 12 months and going forward.”