Una’s restaurant is an institution in Sydney. First opening in the late 1960s, when the rent was just $25 and paid from the proceeds from the jukebox, they serve a home-style menu inspired by the foods and flavours of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary.
Una’s has been part of Darlinghurst’s hospitality scene for over half a century and has sat in the hands of the Van Rijn family for nearly half of that time.
Running an institution like Una’s, with a 50-year legacy, can be a delicate balancing act. Martika Van Rijn and her father, who currently run the restaurant, are determined to consistently deliver a traditional, authentic dining experience while also embracing technology.
We sat down with Martika in our podcast series, RAW, to discuss what it takes to run a successful restaurant for over two decades and the challenges of bringing a 50-year-old institution up to speed with 21st-century technology.
This is the story of Una’s.
From then to now: a 50-year journey
Una’s first opened its doors in Sydney’s Darlinghurst in the 1960s.
“An Irish woman named Una opened up a restaurant in Victoria Street Darlinghurst, and at the time… it was just a snack house. You could go there, spend a couple of bucks, get a drink, get a sandwich, get a pastry or something, and then go off your merry way.”
Una owned the restaurant for a couple of years before it was taken over by an Austrian-Swiss couple, who moved the venue down the road and expanded it.
During this time, Una’s started to develop its European flare – with the introduction of a European menu and schnitzels. After 10-15 years, Una’s changed hands again when a Dutch couple took the reins, and in 1999 Martika’s father took ownership and has been at the helm ever since.
Despite never having worked in the hospitality industry before, Martika’s father immediately felt at home in Una’s, and in over 23 years, he hasn’t looked back.
“It’s one of those things I think in hospitality where once you’re in it, it’s hard to leave. It’s very hard to walk away.”
Martika believes that one of the things that makes Una’s so special and unique is the eclectic, individual touches each owner has added along the way. And, in respect of previous owners, each new owner has added to, rather than dismantled, the vast collection of artwork and knickknacks.
“I think because it’s been owned by so few people, everybody’s really been able to put their stamp on it and made their mark.”
“You’ve got all these relics from all these different owners and all these different flares… It’s formed over time with the love of each of the owners.”
A little slice of Central Europe in Sydney
Thanks to its European roots and its homely atmosphere, Una’s is a firm favourite amongst Europeans who now call Sydney home.
“All the Europeans always come to Una’s, and they go: oh, I haven’t had a goulash like this since I was back home, or the schnitzel is so good or, oh my God, there’s European beers.”
Una’s is renowned for its European dishes, and the menu hasn’t changed in decades – customers love what they do, and there’d be an outcry if their famous dishes were taken off the menu.
“We are so known for our schnitzels, and we’re so known for what we do that if we change part of the menu, it would change what you come to Una’s for.”
After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
While changing the food menu is a no-go, Martika and her father try to switch up their drinks offering as often as possible to add a bit of variety to their menu.
“We bring different drinks and different schnapps and try to explore outside of what makes us great and what we’re known for and push the boundaries there. But we could never get rid of the schnitzels, and we could never get rid of the pork knuckles… I think there’d be riots on the street.”
Keeping it consistent
With Una’s, what you see is what you get, and it’s been their recipe for success for decades.
No matter when or what time of year you visit, you’re guaranteed a hearty meal in a homely atmosphere with great company.
“It’s this familiar place where they [customers] can catch up. There’s no pretentiousness. There’s no pretending to be something they’re not.”
“I think one of the greatest things is that it doesn’t change. The staff, the food, the people, it doesn’t change… The music is the same. The art is the same. Everything is the same. And I think people like that sense of familiarity when everything is changing so quickly, and everything around you changes so quickly.”
“The other day, some guy was like, I haven’t been here in 12 years, and nothing’s changed. And the food is exactly the way I remembered it. Everything is exactly the way I remembered it.”
After all, in hospitality, consistency is key, and one of the main things that draw customers back to Una’s time after time, year after year, is its consistency.
“It’s like home for a lot of people – it’s familiar, it’s consistent.”
“You know exactly what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a good meal. You’re going to have a good time. It’s comfortable. And I think people really resonate with that.”
“They can leave for 10, 15, even 20 years sometimes and come back and go, oh, it’s exactly the way I left it. I love this.”
A delicate balance between tradition and tech
The team at Una’s is always treading a fine line between keeping things consistent and traditional and embracing new hospitality trends.
On the one hand, there’s pressure to keep the experience authentic, and every change needs meticulous consideration. On the other hand, in an industry that’s constantly evolving, it’s also essential to keep up with the latest trends.
One area of Una’s that can be bought into the 21st century without impacting the authenticity of the food or atmosphere is technology.
However, even introducing payment technology proved to be controversial at first.
“Up until about 10, 15 years ago, we were still cash only. And it took a very long time for us to even introduce EFTPOS in the restaurant because people were so unwilling to change. They’d be like, no! I always come here with my cash, and this is how I do it.”
“We’ve obviously had to keep up with the times and make sure that we are with technology and with delivery and all that being so important nowadays in hospitality. But as a whole, the restaurant has really stayed authentic to what it is and who it is.”
“It’s not trying to be something it’s not. Which I think gives it its charm. It’s just Una’s.”
Embracing a new way of operating
Like many hospitality venues across Australia, the Covid pandemic forced Una’s hand when it came to embracing technology and taking the business online with delivery.
“I think the pandemic really shook the business. In the space of a couple weeks, everything shut down, no customers were allowed in the restaurant, and we’ve built our brand on people being in the restaurant… So having nobody in the restaurant really switched things up for us.”
“We stayed open, so we could do deliveries, and we could do pickups, and we could still be accessible to the community.”
“We weren’t going to close the doors. We were going to keep pushing for as long as we could. We’d been open for 50 years at that point. COVID was not going to be the thing that shut us down.”
Before the pandemic, the team at Una’s were still using traditional pen and paper to note down orders and communicate with the kitchen. However, this was causing order errors as things were getting missed.
“We were still doing orders on pen and paper and running into the kitchen, and things were being missed. We were finding that drinks and dockets would get missed, and things would get pushed around.”
The pandemic gave Martika some perspective and time to think about how they could run Una’s in the future, to better serve their customers and make fewer mistakes – and she saw technology playing a role in Una’s future.
“I have the outside perspective of seeing where software and where tech is going and where hospitality is going, but also loving the restaurant so much. And so really marrying the two allows us to move forward in a way that we can keep the authenticity of the brand and also move into the 21st century.”
Enhancing the customer experience
When it came to implementing tech into the business, Martika wanted to ensure it didn’t take away from the traditional experience they’d been delivering for decades. Instead, she wanted to implement a system that could optimise their operation without impacting the customer experience.
“I think the biggest thing for us was to sit down and go, okay, what parts of Una’s can we not give up? What things are our non-negotiables?”
“It was definitely our staff and the relationship that the staff have with our customers and that feeling that you have walking around and talking to people.”
“And that was when we made the decision to have tablets in the restaurant instead of doing things on pen and paper. Having tablets, we can still keep the relationship with our customers. We can still talk to them, but you know, things aren’t going to be missed.”
Implementing tech into Una’s took a lot of consideration, and Martika believes they’ve found the right balance between keeping with the restaurant’s old traditions and bringing in technology to prepare for the future.
“We’ll move forward, but it’ll stay the same. It’s just an adjustment to make sure that the restaurant works better. And the relationship with the customers works better.”
“It’s made us take stock: okay, this restaurant was built 50 years ago. It was created for the type of lifestyle that was there 50 years ago. We don’t want to lose the heart and soul of Una’s, but we need to take stock and look at what the future is going to look like.”
Listen to Raw Podcast
Listen to the full interview with Martika on respectfully building on a 50-year restaurant legacy.
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