Ep 1 -Making the hard calls for your brand to survive and thrive with Tim Christensen from Alma Group

Opening his 1st venue, Alma, in 2017, Tim Christensen wanted to bring the quintessential Mexican coastal restaurant to Sydney’s Northern Beaches, something he achieved with aplomb. Since then, he has expanded his business with a 2nd location, St Alma, opening in 2021 in Freshwater.

But that wasn’t always the plan:

“We actually signed a lease in Freshwater back in early 2016, with the landlord eventually turning around and explaining to us that Freshwater doesn't want a Mexican restaurant, refunding our deposit and ripping up our lease.”

A trip to the Oaxaca region of Mexico ignited the spark inside Tim’s head which eventually lead to the birth of Alma and later St Alma.

“I was really able to explore that cuisine, and it kind of encouraged me to do a lot of research into what traditional Mexican food really was. And what I found just blew my mind. I started going deeper and deeper into the cuisine, and I soon understood it was just as rich and diverse as anything we're trained in—any French or Italian, it just kept going.

“We saw a growing market in contemporary, casual, Mexican food, and a complete lack of competition and a hole in the market, especially on the Northern beaches in Sydney.”

Find out more about the Lightspeed x POH Series RAW here:

https://www.lightspeedhq.com.au/raw-hospitality-podcast-series/

Lightspeed Website: https://www.lightspeedhq.com.au/

POH Website: https://principleofhospitality.com/

A little more about RAW

RAW will be a podcast series about the highs and lows of hospitality.

Each episode our host over at POH, Shaun De Vries, will conduct off-the-cuff, unscripted and uncensored interviews with the best in the industry.

They’ll be talking about their experiences, what they’ve had to sacrifice or overcome to achieve their success, and what keeps them pushing forwards in an industry that has a tendency to both wear down and excite in equal measure.

The guests will leave everything in the open, showing that even though they may enjoy a success that seems out of reach to most, they too had to work hard to get there and we all start from the same place.