James Connolly got paid to open bars for others — now he’s opened his own

I’m talking to one of my favourite Australian bartenders in this episode, it’s James Connolly. He’s a veteran of the Perth bartending scene, one of the nicest guys in the business, and recently he opened the very bar of his own, Bertie in Bassendean in Perth. He’s one of a growing number of bartenders turned owners who have decided to open places a little further from the CBD, so he talks a bit about the motivations behind that, about his career today which has seen him in multiple roles, and he talks about the importance of reviews, too.