Seascape: By the sea but far from being all at sea

Sean Edwards - The Magazine for the Cafe Industry August 18, 2020

Updated 2020/08/18 at 12:16 AM

4 Min Read

Perched above the hustle of the Surfers Paradise Esplanade, Seascape Restaurant + Bar offers amazing ocean views over the iconic Surfers Paradise beach.

With uninterrupted ocean views from all seats you are filled with thoughts of how great and powerful that expansive ocean is. Both majestic and daunting, its beauty can swallow you up whole if you don’t know what you’re doing and take heed of the warning signs.

Sipping on your latte you realise the ocean is like the hospitality industry in some way, everybody wants to have a dip and think they know best with little thought of thinking, can I actually swim?

Add Covid19 and you have one very angry ocean whipping up a storm destroying everybody who dares to enter.

This is not Bondi Rescue where the likes of Hoppo and Kerrbox are going to save you and you get to wave to the camera, this is The Perfect Storm with Mark Wahlberg and George Clooney where you are at the foot of that giant wave so you better be prepared for what’s in store and know how to swim!

Owners of Seascape, Eddie and Fouad are doing just that. They are swimming. But, like a passing piece of driftwood in the ocean they have held on to what they can to stay afloat.

Hours are down but production and quality have had to remain high. People still want that quality service, the excellent food and drink and they still want to look out on the panoramic view and get lost in thought.

You still have to provide however you can – and they are doing just that.

Today efficiency is key.

In most restaurants/cafes staff have to multitask, but this is multi-multitasking if there is such a word.

Staff do more with less and it is valuable to have operations in process that allow businesses to operate like this. Equipment such as the Reneka Life Art Barista machine has helped Seascape.

The French machine produces excellent quality coffee with a touch of a button, automatic steaming (with latte art options) and auto self-tamping built in, owner Eddie said

“My staff can attend to more while the machine is making quality coffee each time. There’s less clutter on our workspace to manage because of the in-built design too. At the moment we cannot afford to have one staff member just focusing on making coffees, they have to be a barman, a waiter, a host and a barista all in one and the quality needs to be professional and consistent at all times – the Reneka Life helps – it’s a game changer for the hospitality industry and has come in at the right time for many”.

At this stage nobody knows what the tide will bring and how much more Covid will change the way we do business, but unlike Clooney and Wahlberg (spoiler alert), it looks like Seascape has the right equipment to make it back in to Port safely.