Michael Bascetta is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Pax, He calls it a “bolt-on management team”, and it’s one that’s made up of the best in the biz across strategy, product, operations, finance, people, marketing and everything else that comes with running a hospitality business in 2025.
And whether you’re putting together a new menu or launching a new venue, Bascetta and his team have the credentials to crack the code. His expertise spans menu development, brand positioning and customer experience design, ensuring products resonate with both business objectives and market demand. He’s deeply involved in industry education and workforce development, supporting hospitality training through the Scarf Community, and has a strong focus on innovation, operational excellence, and guest-centric design.
Now, here’s Bascetta with everything you need to know about Pax.
Hey Michael, you’ve worked across a lot of different facets of hospitality, but for anyone who doesn’t know you, what’s your highlights reel?
I’ve spent over 15 years in hospitality operations and venue ownership as Front of House at Attica, Nahm, and Bella Vedere. I co-founded Made Well Group, which includes Bar Liberty, Capitano, and Falco Bakery, as well as Worksmith, a hospitality co-working hub fostering innovation and industry collaboration. I’m also on the Board of Scarf Community – a social enterprise transforming the lives of young people seeking protection and those from migrant and refugee backgrounds.
Additionally, in 2025, I’ve been working with The Mulberry Group, driving product strategy and guest experience across their venues.
And now you’re doing Pax. What is that exactly?
There’s plenty of restaurants out there, and with new ones opening (and closing) all the time – we thought, what if we focused on helping the existing ones stay open, profitable and relevant.
Think of Pax as a bolt-on management team – a group of individuals with decades of experience in the areas of hospitality vital to success – strategy, product, operations, finance, people and marketing. We don’t know of many businesses out there that have the turnover or capital to invest in the salaries associated with experienced directors across those six areas. So, we come in as partners and work with founders, directors and their leadership teams to build the framework and gear them up to lead more strategically. We audit the whole business, prepare a strategy and list of recommendations, roadmap the roll-out and then execute the plan with the team, becoming embedded in a business over longer term contracts working through each project, bit by bit. We’re not consultants that come in, tell you what’s wrong and then bounce.
And who’s involved?
This is a team that collectively have worked with, operated and owned venues from some of Australia’s leading businesses in hospitality. We’re all motivated by wanting this industry to thrive and everyone has their area of specialty that when combined, is a pretty powerful force.
Our team includes Leon Kennedy, who leads businesssStrategy and brings 20 years of experience from places like The Mulberry Group and Proud Mary. Those who know Leon will resonate when I say that you’ll never meet a more optimistic and approachable CEO – there isn’t much he can’t unravel with a good strategy.
Working closely with Leon is Kate Bradford who takes care of finance. She’s incredibly versed in the challenging intricacies of hospitality having spent over a decade at Trader House and close to 25 years in the finance biz. There’s a lot of time saved in Kate’s ability to quickly interpret the financial position and systems of a business, find the pain points and rectify with the right sort of plan and framework.
Loren Daniels looks after sales and marketing and has a solid understanding of the commercial realities associated with running restaurants – she spent 10 years at Trader House and before that was at Vue de Monde. Less marketing fluff and a no-bullshit approach to connecting marketing to sales.
Responsible for all things people, culture and compliance is Selena Plessis, she’s a true pro and passionately believes that all people should have the right to a positive workplace experience. Selena brings so much expertise in all facets of HR, having worked in the industry for 20 years at places like Donovans and Scott Pickett Group. Both Loren and Selena have spent years working on the floor of restaurants too, so they really speak the language.
Marvin Holder is a complete package in the industry. A chef and a seasoned operations weapon that’s built and led businesses from the ground up, being part of groups like Vue de Monde and Merivale, as well as running ops for a wide variety of venue models across different market levels. He understands the role that everyone plays in the restaurant, whatever their job title.
Tim Varney and I have worked together for years. His product specialty lies in coffee with 20 years of roasting, buying and brand development, most recently at Stella and Grada. Tim’s developed a ton of community and industry-based initiatives and events and he brings such a great lens to product and brand.
And then there’s me – Michael Bascetta, leading product.
We see ourselves as a pit-crew of hospitality mechanics that each have a set of tools, rather than a single consultant that may be a jack of all trades. We know individually what we’re good at and deeply value how our combined efforts connect together as a whole.
Is this part of Mulberry Group?
No. The Mulberry Group has been an important incubator for Pax as an idea to develop, with a number of us working with Nathan Toleman and his teams over the last 12 months. While Pax is a completely separate entity, The Mulberry Group and Pax will continue to work together as partners, in the same way that Pax will work with other hospitality businesses.
What kinds of businesses do you think Pax can deliver benefits for?
Basically, anyone from the solo operator trying to make it work, to bigger businesses or groups looking to grow. We can also act as an advisory arm on projects that might be in infancy stages like concept ideation or in need of an operating model and business plan.
We find that a lot of owner/operator led businesses may be acutely aware that their venue can be doing better and should dial in on the areas that need work, but they feel stuck and don’t know the way out. We help them figure out what to focus on and get a solid plan in place to get them back on track.
You might be a restaurant group or venue that has a really creative and talented head chef, or an experienced venue manager with an engaged team, but you need guidance on things like compliance and recruitment, cash flow and debt restructuring, or solid sales and marketing plans.
Then there’s businesses that grow really quickly and need to play catch up to get the house in order so they don’t go backwards or burn the team out. A great kind of partner is an operator who is wanting to leverage the success of their first venue ahead of opening venue two or three. They can work with us to set up solid foundations and processes so that the growth is sustainable and they see the benefits of shared structure and framework – not just commercially, but culturally.
And what are some examples of ways you guys can help?
We cover everything from the big picture, like crafting your mission and vision, to the details that impact the customer directly, such as refining food, drinks, service, and the space itself. We’ll implement solid financial reporting and education, plus handle organisational risk management and brand positioning. We can work on behind the scenes areas like refining back of house operations, resource allocation, scaling, and optimising channels for promotion. We design sales and marketing strategies, look at ways to achieve operational excellence and enhance the guest experience and help you set up Standard Operating Procedures across each department. We also focus on team leadership, labor management, and revenue optimisation.
We can help increase the leadership team’s understanding around Fair Work, employment law compliance and interpretation of the Restaurant Award. Learning, development, and succession planning are also key, as well as building a positive workplace culture and robust people systems. It’s a comprehensive approach to making sure every facet of your business is set up for success – essentially get you firing on all six cylinders.
While we’re talking shop, back on your own career, who do you look to in Victoria for inspiration?
A lot of people (and their teams) that consistently wake up each day and dedicate themselves to the craft of hospitality, food and beverage. People that come to mind that I admire are the likes of Ashley and Jane Huntington (of Two Metre Tall in Tasmania, producing drinks that transcend beer in every sense), Stephen and Elizabeth Morris (of Pennyweight Winery in Beechworth, Victoria, who are producing some of the most underrated fortified wines in Australia), Quentin Berthonneau of Oji House (a soon to be open baking studio in Melbourne’s North). These people embody what I love about our industry, dedication to what they do and open to sharing all of their knowledge.
What are some reasons you have to be hopeful about the year ahead in hospitality?
There is no doubt that we are in a pretty difficult cycle in hospitality at the minute. However, I am already seeing a lot of people building ambitious projects and not throwing in the towel.
Ultimately, people still want to spend their money on genuine food experiences and those prepared to go the extra mile for their guests are coming out in front. It gives me hope that younger industry pros see the value of starting their own business and being part of the next generation of operators.
And what about people feeling the pinch? Apart from, of course, engaging Pax, what are some tools or ideas you’d recommend for people doing it tough right now?
Stick to the core values of your business and create experiences that resonate with your current customer base whilst appealing to others in your community who may not have discovered you yet. Creating accessible experiences is what’s resonating most in Melbourne now and having the ability to have an ‘always on’ policy of communicating to your audience will keep you front of mind.
From a more clinical perspective, getting totally granular around revenue forecasting and adjusting what you can to manage costs on a daily basis is vital – control what you can control.
Before you think about promotions, concepts and collaborations, make sure you have the basics covered. Is what you’re communicating to the world correct?
Are you making it easy for guests to understand what you do so they feel compelled to come and experience your restaurant? Things like accurate information on your Google listing, a clear pathway to book through your website, correct info on social and not limiting your reservation availability. Loren covers a few of these basics in a chat with Leon on this podcast which has some pretty straight forward tips that you could action immediately.
If things go well, where will Pax be 12 months from now?
Busy. Bloody busy. High fiving our partners on getting through another year in hospitality, but with a renewed sense of optimism, love for what they do and positive profit lines.
As for our growth plans – as we scale, so too will our team of specialists. Think culinary, beverage, technology, design and operational guns.
Excellent. Where do we sign up?
Find us at @pax.melbourne. Anyone who’s keen to learn more about how it works can line up a chat – talking to myself or Leon. After that, we come in and conduct an audit to get a holistic ‘look-under-the-hood’ at each department of the business so that we can review how it’s operating at a base level and design a game-plan.
Get in touch with Michael and the team at pax.melbourne and follow along at @pax.melbourne.