How to scale a hospitality business from one restaurant to twelve, how to build systems that let you run 750 staff across every cuisine imaginable, and the mindset shifts every restaurant owner, café owner or bar owner has to make to break through the multi-venue ceiling. Michael Tassis of the Tassis Group on 16 years of building Brisbane's biggest independent hospitality group.
Michael Tassis started with one seafood restaurant in Brisbane in 2010.
16 years later, the Tassis Group runs 12 restaurants, employs 750 staff, and covers Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, Asian, seafood, steakhouse and modern Australian — with more venues opening at The Star Brisbane and the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge.
He grew up in his family's iconic Sydney seafood restaurant George's Paragon. Broke away in 2010. Opened his own George's Paragon at Eagle Street Pier and spent two hard years grinding to break through. Once he did, he was running the busiest restaurant in Brisbane doing 5,000+ customers a week with over 100 staff.
Then he did what most owners can't — went from one venue to two, from two to three, then kept going.
In this episode, Michael sits down with Tim to break down the exact playbook. How he learned the back-office side after a career on the floor and in the kitchen. Why he refuses to carbon-copy the same concept. How his brother Peter runs the internal broker for every new site. The systems and internal contracts that let him hand every hiring decision back to venue GMs. And why the multi-venue ceiling isn't a marketing problem — it's a systems and trust problem.
This is one of the most operationally generous conversations we've had on the show.
You'll hear:
00:00 – From one restaurant to 12 in 16 years — the whole journey
02:00 – Growing up in George's Paragon and breaking away from the family
04:00 – Two years grinding to break through Eagle Street Pier
06:00 – Massimo: the second venue that took off from day one
08:00 – The biggest jump: going from one to two, and what changed
10:00 – Rico's: sharing staff between venues and the efficiency multiplier
12:00 – Going from three to four: trusting the team more, coaching the culture
16:00 – The 30 franchise stores that funded his group's growth
18:00 – Why he refuses to do the same cuisine twice
22:00 – How his brother Peter runs the internal broker for every new site
28:00 – Internal contracts: staff on 6 months of a new concept "before it opens"
33:00 – The hardest hire in the group and how they solved it
38:00 – Handing every hire back to venue GMs — and why it changed everything
42:00 – The culture ethos: how to build a place people fight to work at
46:00 – Michael's advice for anyone stuck at 2-3 venues
Key takeaways:
- Going from one to two isn't about opening another venue. It's about learning the back office you never had to know.
- The three-venue ceiling isn't a marketing problem. It's a systems and trust problem.
- The best operators refuse to carbon-copy their own success. Every venue needs its own concept.
- Share staff across venues. It doubles their utility and halves the labour headache.
- Every hiring decision should live with the venue that has to work with the person. GMs blame themselves after that, not you.
- Great people follow great people. Culture attracts culture. Your first management hire sets the tone for the next 10 years.
- Systems + numbers = scale. Without either, you'll stall at three venues forever.
If you're stuck at your first, second or third venue and you want to know how to break through, book a free Profit Finding Session with the Foodie Coaches team at https://discover.foodiecoaches.com/bac
Follow Michael and the Tassis Group:
@tassisgroup
Follow along:
@foodie_coaches
@tim.kummerfeld
New episodes every Wednesday.
