Meet Toby Stitt, Grazie, Papi, The Spare Room, The Athletic Club

By Steph Wanless

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Sawtell local Toby Stitt fell in love with hospitality while working at his mate’s business, Old John’s in Coffs Harbour. He honed his craft, took time off to travel the world, then returned home to establish his own three-venue-strong empire.

How was the idea for The Spare Room born?

It was my mum’s vision, as well as my own. My old boy’s a jazz muso, so he and mum have spent a lot of time listening to live music over the past 30-40 years. Before we opened doors eight years ago, we’d spent some time in New York, visiting jazz clubs, soaking up those sounds and the vibe of the place – we really wanted to bring a taste of that back to Sawtell so we made it happen. That was 2015, and we’ve been flying ever since.

What were you doing before you launched your own business?

I was working at another small venue in Coffs called Old John’s – back then it was run by a mate of mine and was a really cool coffee shop that also traded as a bar five nights a week. That’s where I learned the basics of how to work behind the bar and really fell in love with hospitality; it was the first venue I saw as a really cool place to work. I stayed there for 12 to 18 months, then took off overseas. While I was away, my mate who owned it bought Barrels, which is where The Spare Room is now. He turned it into Frank’s, a New York bar kind of place which, to cut a long story short, didn’t really work out for them. When I came home from my travels, he floated the idea of us taking over and within a couple of days, it was ours. Mum had wanted that space long before it became Frank’s, so it was funny how it all worked out in the end.

How did you come up with the name?

We were butting heads for ages on a name, we just couldn’t land on one. Then one day, we were doing the usual admin you have to do to purchase a business and I asked mum where a document was – she answered: ‘I think it’s in the spare room’. We both just stopped, looked at each other and that was it, The Spare Room was born. We both knew as soon as it was said out loud. It fits with the vibe of the venue and the kind of hospitality we like to be known for too, it’s a very homely atmosphere. That’s how we want people to feel when they step inside – like they’re coming home.

When did you decide to add The Athletic Club to the mix?

Back in 2019, The Spare Room was flying, we were booked out every night of the week and needed another space to direct people to while waiting for their table. The space across the road was up for lease and we were actually due to sign it the week before COVID hit… but pulled the pin on that one for obvious reasons. We eventually signed that lease in early 2021 and opened in June that year. The week we opened, we got locked down. It was crazy. And because all the grants stipulated you had to have been trading for at least 12 months, we weren’t eligible for any support. So we had to shut the doors. I’m not sure how we got through it, but we did.

How are the two businesses working together now?

It took a while for the venues to get back to full throttle, but in the past 12 months we’re finally seeing them work side by side the way we’d always envisioned. It’s been really cool. The Spare Room is packed on weekends and now we can send people across the road to The Athletic Club to enjoy a cocktail while they wait for their table. When it’s ready, one of our servers will run across the road and let them know – it’s a dream, and a lot of that is down to our other part-owner of the business, Julian Hulbert. Jules is another local boy, grew up in Bellingen and was working with mum and I at The Spare Room for a while. He’s the driving force behind that place – he’ll be there every night doing service, training the staff and making it feel fun.

The Athletic Club is a super unique name, where did that come from?

Jules and I used to go to the pub after knocking off from The Spare Room every Sunday arvo – it was the only place that would serve Guinness on tap. So we’d sit there, have half a dozen pints and talk about opening a bar, what it would look like, how it would feel and what we ultimately wanted it to be. The first thing we knew was that it would have a Guinness tap. But the name itself actually came from an old cocktail bar in Detroit – we’re talking pre-prohibition era – called The Detroit Athletic Club. We did our research and no one had breathed life into the name for a while – so we sat on it, and it grew on us. Jules is a mad sports nut and I grew up playing a lot of local sport, so we’re both frustrated athletes and thought that’s something a lot of the public could relate to.

Grazie, Papi joined the family in 2022 – how did that come about?

There’s this rule of thirds when it comes to hospitality venues, almost like a golden rule when it comes to your team and your suppliers. People think if you have three or more venues, it enables you to implement a streamlined structure across all three that ultimately benefits all three businesses. So when the owner of Fiasco, as the restaurant was then called, approached me with the idea of taking over a few years ago, I knew it had potential. He was a mate of mine and he’d done a fantastic job running the place for years, but we just weren’t ready at that time. Then in early 2022, when he suggested it to me again, the timing was right. As an Italian restaurant it was already in our wheelhouse, except at Grazie, Papi all the pizzas are cooked over flame, and it’s super established. The venue had been operating for the past 16 years, which would have to be one of the longest tenures in Coffs for a restaurant. It’s a step up in terms of size – on a busy summer’s night we can seat 160 people, double the size of The Spare Room, so that’s been really fun too. As for the structure, we’ve seen benefits there for sure. We have a solid leadership team, a bigger pool of people to draw on across all three venues and have also brought on an executive chef. His role is to relieve the head chef on each venue’s day off, while also managing all invoicing across our producers and accounts, prepping staff roasters and dealing with catering.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

Obviously there was the whole COVID era I mentioned earlier, but that aside, there’s always something in business ownership right? It can be tricky building a team from the ground up, finding the right people and working to make sure everyone’s happy. So that’s the core focus of my role – keeping people happy and ensuring all correct procedures and processes are being rolled out across the venue. I’m there to maintain quality control and morale, because nothing works without those core components.

Your biggest belief in hospitality?

We’re huge on saying hi and bye in all three venues. As soon as you step into a venue you should be made to feel like family – that’s something that’s all too often lost nowadays. People get caught up in the pretentiousness of a place and that’s just not what we’re about. I want people to walk out that door wanting to come back, and that comes down to greeting people in the right way and encouraging all our servers to be as personable as possible. They’re trained in their craft and they’re good at what they do. We have a great core team and we put a high value on making sure the guest is happy, comfortable and feels like they’re being cared for.