I sit down with Giuseppe Lombardi — known to friends as Pepo — founder of Banco, a portable cocktail station based in Lecce, in Italy's Puglia region. From competitive sailing as a teenager to hospitality school in Switzerland to a career that took him through Michelin-starred kitchens, luxury hotel bars in Dubai, Prague, Paris, London and Singapore, Pepo has spent over a decade building the experience he's now channeling into his own venue.

Pepo walks through the unconventional path he's taken to entrepreneurship, starting mobile rather than diving straight into a lease, the reasoning behind his investment structure, and what it actually takes (financially and bureaucratically) to open a venue in an Italian historic center. He gets candid about the pressure of using family money, the mentors who shaped his approach to leadership, and the vision he's building for a place that isn't about the drink list, it's about how people feel when they walk in.

Expect a deep dive into Italian hospitality bureaucracy that will make you grateful for wherever you're opening your bar, a wildly specific breakdown of what a commercial kitchen actually requires by law, and a few hard-won lessons about the gap between working for someone else and building something of your own.

Dylan Brentwood, bar director and founder of Hummingbird, a mental health and harm-reduction initiative for hospitality workers, joins Over Proof from Halifax, Nova Scotia — mid-way through opening a brand new bar program from scratch. With a background as a professional dancer and actor before crossing into hospitality, Dylan brings a fight director's precision and a performer's read on adrenaline to everything he does behind the bar.

From six years anchoring a beloved Halifax cocktail program to turning over an entire new venue in under six weeks, Dylan talks candidly about what it actually costs to keep opening doors — creatively, financially, and mentally. He traces the years that led to founding Hummingbird: an undiagnosed autoimmune condition, a mental health crisis that started as an offhand comment from a boss, and a realisation that the industry has been treating bartenders like therapists without ever giving them the tools.

This one moves through burnout, neurodivergence, substance use, and the quiet epidemic of hospitality workers who don't know how to ask for help — but it's also full of the philosophy Dylan's built his whole career on: intent over balance, forgiveness over shame, and investing in people over product. Expect some properly unfiltered opinions on police, "sustainability" marketing, and why muscle memory doesn't actually exist.

And if you've ever wondered what a bottle of tequila tattooed on someone's bicep has to do with knowing your limits — stick around for that one.

https://www.instagram.com/overproofff/

https://www.instagram.com/prettybirddyl/

https://www.instagram.com/hummingbirdmhc/

I sit down with Alex Pearson, recorded while he was still Business Leader at Wynyard Pavilion in Auckland, one of the city's biggest hospitality operations, before he moved on to his next role at Hello Sailor.

Alex's path into hospitality started as a side hustle during his business degree in Leeds (a local pub), then a 70-bartender cocktail machine, then a champagne bar part-owned by Laurent-Perrier. A holiday to Bali turned into a move to New Zealand, and what began as a bar and restaurant manager role at what's now Wynyard Pavilion turned into nine years, a wife he met on shift, and eventually the top job running a venue that holds up to a thousand people.

He talks about what it actually takes to run a business you don't own; the financial systems built from scratch, the spreadsheet wizard who cut overheads by 25%, the SOP libraries, the floor-planning software down to the centimetre. He gets into leadership, trust, why he won't hire cocktail bartenders with two to four years' experience, and the philosophy that's shaped how he manages people through the hardest nights in hospitality.

And then there's America's Cup; 140 kegs in 22 hours, a keg of Little Creatures gone in seven minutes flat, and a night so packed Alex couldn't physically reach his own bar. It's the story that ended up shaping his whole team, and it's one you have to hear in full.

This week on Overproof, Sarah sits down with Lachlan Gunner — distiller at Storytellers Distillery, owner of Trap Cocktail Bar, and founder of Master Bartending — all based in Adelaide, Australia.

Lachie's path into hospitality started with mopping floors as a patisserie assistant before he found his way behind the bar. A failed bottle cocktail business at 20, a stint slinging espresso martinis in a high-volume Oxford Street nightclub, and a COVID-era move back to Adelaide eventually led him to answer a distiller job ad — and walk out as a business partner. From there came Trap, a 15-seat cocktail bar he opened on the budget of a house deposit, doing almost all the fit-out himself.

The conversation covers the real economics of opening small — rent-free periods, insurance claims, and the hard call of cutting staff hours to survive — alongside the emotional pull that drives people to open venues in the first place. Lachie also unpacks his years chasing cocktail competitions around the world, and how that obsession led him to build Master Bartending: a platform designed to turn competitive bartending into something closer to a real sport, complete with a chess-style ranking system.

Along the way: a warehouse fire that struck the distillery twice in two weeks, the wildest night he's ever been in the weeds, and the mentality shift on a plane to Sydney that changed how he competes for good.

Find Sarah: https://www.instagram.com/overproofff/

Lachlans Socials: https://www.instagram.com/lachiegunner/

Trap Bar: https://www.instagram.com/trap.adl/

Storytellers Distillery: https://www.instagram.com/storytellersdistillery/

Master Bartending: https://www.instagram.com/master.bartending/

This week on OverProof, I sit down with Timo Janse — founder of Dutch Courage Cocktail Bar in Amsterdam, creator of the Perfect Serve Bar Show, organiser of Amsterdam Cocktail Week, and the man who used his bar opening savings to build a national bar show instead because nobody else was going to do it.

Timo's path into hospitality started as a side job while studying economics — a dive bar on weekends, then a boutique hotel bar where he showed up as a temp and ended up managing the place within weeks. From there, nearly a decade behind the stick at Door 74, Amsterdam's legendary speakeasy, before finally getting the keys to his own venue — two weeks before COVID hit.

He talks about what it took to actually open Dutch Courage: the false starts, the asbestos ceiling nobody mentioned until they were ready to sign, the banks that wouldn't touch him until he'd already survived five years without them, and the insurance broker who told him not to bother thinking about a pension. He also gets into what it looked like to run three bars, split from a business partner the right way, and come out the other side with one venue, more clarity, and a sign on his wall that says nobody's ever gotten smarter from a meeting.

And there's a guest shift story. I won't ruin it. Just know it involves a cucumber, a three-floor bar where every single staff member was on their first day, and Timo having to be physically dragged out at the end of his shift.

I sit down with Jason Williams — Director at Housemade Hospitality in Sydney, spirits evangelist turned venue operator, and the man with his face on a gin that became the official pour of the Singapore Sling.

Jason's path into hospitality was deliberate from the start — Eagle Boys Pizza at 13, a Hyatt Regency resort, nightclubs in Brisbane, cocktail bars in Melbourne, and eventually a Group Bars Manager role at Keystone before getting headhunted to Singapore to run the bar consultancy arm of Proof and Company. Over eight years, he worked on some of the most significant bar openings in Asia Pacific — Raffles, Atlas, a $500M Four Seasons in Seoul — before returning to Sydney to co-found Housemade Hospitality with his business partners.

Housemade now operates 13 venues, including four across the heritage-listed Hinchcliffe House at Circular Quay. They hit five years this year. One of those venues had to close. Jason talks about that too.

We get into what scaling a group actually costs you — your attention, your relationships, your ability to taste every cocktail in every bar. He shares where he thinks bar consultancy is heading, why he thinks most people are using AI like embarrassing Facebook posts from 2010, and what it means to miss your best friend's wedding for a bar opening and know, without much doubt, that you'd probably do it again.

I interview Zara Madrusan — founder of The Everleigh, Heartbreaker, Everleigh Bottling Co, Connie's Navy Strength, Ice Co, Bar Margaux, LB's Record Bar, and Bartenders Choice Consultancy, co-writer of Madrusan Cocktail Companion, and A Spot at the Bar.

Zara shares her path from studying theatre and performance in London to landing in Melbourne on a whim, walking into The Everleigh five days later, and falling completely under its spell. She describes that first visit — the waft of freshly pressed mint, the choreographed dance between bartenders and floor staff, the feeling of being transported — and knowing immediately she wanted to be part of it.

She explains how the team took her under their wing, taught her everything, and eventually handed her the keys to The Elk Room to run events. From there, her creativity sparked: test the bartender challenges, immersive concepts, and ideas borrowed from London's underground bar scene. She talks about how her theatre background shaped the way she sees hospitality and how that lens gave her permission to pitch wild ideas to a team generous enough to back them.

We also get into what it's like juggling multiple venues, how she knew she wanted this career before she knew it was even possible, and the moment her passion shifted from drinks alone to the full experience of running spaces.

Congrats on being nominated for Tales for your new book!

Find The Madrusan Cocktail Companion here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Madrusan-Cocktail-Companion-Contributions-Bartenders/dp/1761500449

Zara's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zaramadrusan/

Overproof Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/overproofff/

Dre Walters co-owns Old Mates Place and Old Loves — two bars tucked away on the fourth floor and basement of a century-old Sydney building. Getting there means riding a rickety 1920s lift or climbing narrow service stairs, but that's part of the charm.

In this conversation, Dre talks about what actually happens when you open a bar: hitting asbestos on day one of the build, losing $85,000 before you've poured a single drink, and working with a lift that's broken down for months at a time. He also shares how his background in commercial real estate helped him negotiate leases, why he walked away from seven potential sites before finding the right one, and what it took to build a rooftop bar with no money left in the budget.

We also get into the stuff people don't usually talk about — like the heartbreak of spending months on plans for a second rooftop venue, only to have council reject it at the final hurdle. And we touch on what's coming for Australian hospitality, as excise taxes push cocktail prices toward $35 and small operators figure out how to stay afloat.

If you're thinking about opening a bar, or you're already in the thick of it, this one's for you.