Paul Tripodi is just the sort of affable, unflappable guy you want as front-of-house in your neighbourhood restaurant. He knows everyone, and everyone who doesn’t know him probably knows Herringbone, his “baby”. It’s his main gig – he also has interests in two other restaurants.
There’s shady outdoor dining, atrium dining under a tree, and a main room with trailing vines, jars of colourful spices, rustic wood, exposed beams and whitewashed brick.
Tripodi and his partner, Nicola, live in Woodville South, in the health minister Mark Butler’s seat of Hindmarsh, where they like to grow tomatoes and take their rescue greyhound, George, for beach walks.
Tell us about an average week for you
Tuesday is full admin day, and then it’s a clean-up of the restaurants, just getting places up and going. I get things ready at Herringbone, and then work the evening service, and then Wednesday as well. So working Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
It’s pretty flexible. I can have the odd day off during the week. Or I’ll come in and set up, and then I’ll have the night off.
What do you do outside work?
Sunday’s a day off. So I usually spend it with my partner and do some gardening.
Then we spend a bit of time down the beach at Tennyson. Take the dog down there. He used to be a runner … he’s pretty lazy, he’ll go for a nice long walk of about 30, 40 minutes. So we take him to the beach, he gets really excited, and he even goes in the water. But outside of that, he’ll spend most of his time on the couch or on the bed upside down.
We’ll have dinner at home, and then Monday’s a day off as well, but I do a little bit of work, just some admin stuff to make Tuesday a bit easier.
What is your housing situation?
We own. We’ve had it for going on three years. I’ve got an investment property, a little unit, which I’ve had for years at Kurralta Park … then my partner and I wanted to buy something … So we got an old classic-style house, red brick and a bit of yardage, a nice back yard. We went a little bit over, but I think we had to. [The market’s] still pretty hot, it hasn’t gone down, but we got in before it would have cracked over a million bucks.
We got a variable loan when we started it at 2% or something, and now it’s at 6.8 or something. So our repayments are massive. You knew it was going to go up, you just didn’t realise it was going to go up that much.
So long as the businesses is still trading I earn enough money to survive, with a little bit extra.
What are the major stressors for you right now?
We’re sort of getting by, which is stressful, I don’t want to ever default or not be able to pay my mortgage. And I want to be able to still live a healthy lifestyle as well.
Right now I’m probably doing 65-70 hours a week, which is a bit excessive. Yeah, I don’t really want to work like that. There’s a lot of people in the world now that aren’t working like that, but they also probably aren’t in a situation where they own their own house.
I’m doing that to save money on the business. The more I work, the less I have to pay for wages.
What are your hopes for the coming year?
I think if the mortgage repayments go down, I’ll probably maintain what I’m paying just to try and get some of it off. That’s the reason we haven’t had a kid yet, because of the financial situation.
Are you better or worse off than three years ago?
Three years ago I was way better off [before buying the house]. I saved heaps of money, but also worked heaps. But I’m glad I invested it in a property, rather than having it just sit there, because I think property’s going to be out of reach at some point for the majority of people. I was lucky enough to get in when I did, but I’ve got friends who will never, ever buy.
Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
I’m concerned we sort of follow the leader here in Australia – we are a bunch of sheep in terms of our federal government, following America … I think we’ve lost a little bit of our own independence. [But premier Peter Malinauskas] is awesome. He’s done everything great for the state. He’s probably the only one that really gives me any sort of positivity towards the future.
Some of the new generation … it’s like full-time work is not an option any more. They don’t want to be locked down. They want to stay casual, they feel like they get a maximum pay rate and they’ve got the flexibility to do whatever they want. But they also complain about the fact they’re not doing enough hours, or they’re not earning enough money.
Maybe it was social media … everyone wants to be an influencer, because they see all the nice cars, and they see all the nice products, they get all this free shit, they live in this fake world of showing everyone you know how good life is. They’ve got an unrealistic view of life. So, yeah, not heaps positive. But I’m positive about my own situation. I’ve got really good family here, and Adelaide is a great place to grow up.
Do you think life was better for your parents than it is for you?
It was harder for them, I think. They sacrificed and worked more. They were workhorses. My mum had a couple of jobs. My dad was young when he came to Australia [from Italy], and he worked in fruit and veg, in the greenhouses.
If I have a kid, I want my kid to have an easier life, definitely. I’ve bought a house to leave it to my kid. So they don’t have to worry about that. I also want them to work, but I just want them to have some assets of their own, without having to sacrifice all their whole life.
I still want them to be able to live the way that they want to live, so long as they’re not lazy.
Where do you get your information about current events?
I don’t trust anyone, I read the standard Facebook and my mum sends me stuff on X … and then Instagram a little bit, and I flick through the news, the ABC. I always listen to people’s comments and chatter. Pretty interesting people come in here – lawyers, architects, people in all different forms of work.
Succession is one of my favourite shows, but it just gives me no faith in print media – I just feel like it’s all bullshit, I feel like you never really get the truth.
Who will you vote for in the next election and why?
I probably prefer to maintain the current lot, because I don’t feel like they’ve done anything bad or wrong. I just think they’ve just maintained what’s happening. The only thing that’s not giving me any confidence is small business. What’s happening with small businesses, with taxes and with the way government’s dealing with small business is not ideal. So if someone decided to change the way small businesses were taxed and controlled federally, then I probably would back them.
Has your vote changed in recent years?
I’ve swung between Liberal and Labor through the years. I’m a mummy’s boy, so I sort of follow what my mum tells me, which is usually Labor, but I haven’t always voted Labor. I look at what’s going to benefit my lifestyle in terms of the small business and my personal situation financially. But I’m not set in stone with anyone, because who can you trust?
