'I want to be bored': Restaurant owner puts business on the market

Pastorale by Meccanico is owner Richard Moffatt's pride and joy - a business he established three-and-a-half years ago.

Mr Moffatt crafted the business to be like nothing else in the region, running at a city-standard with top quality customer service and products, a to-die-for environment and an a la carte menu.

The decision to sell the business came as Mr Moffatt desired a break and some "time to be bored" - but until the sale goes through, it will be "business as usual".

"It is now officially on the market, but a sale could take one month, two months. I don't know how long that process will take, so it will still business as usual," he said.

Mr Moffatt said the price has been set and while negotiations will be considered they will wait patiently for the right buyer.

"My fiancee and I have had the business now for three-and-a-half years and we've just decided it's the right time for us to cool our heels," he said.

"It's been a lot of work, it's been fun.

"When we started Pastorale we really set out to change the standards here in Wagga.

"Wagga has predominately been a town flooded by pubs and family restaurants and a lot of the standalone restaurants have probably not been to the calibre that the community deserves.

"We wanted to set the bar high because we believe Wagga deserves the proper city-style hospitality - so that's what we set out to do and I think we've definitely achieved that."

Over its three years, Pastorale by Meccanico has achieved much to be proud of, contributing more than $200,000 to two local charities and successfully hosting a one-of-a-kind event.

"The one thing I'm most proud of in this business is that I feel Pastorale has more than just a service provider," Mr Moffatt said.

"In the three years we've been in this business we've put over $200,000 back into the local community through two charities, we regularly work with Ronald McDonald House here in Wagga and the Pro Patria Centre, which is a veterans charity.

"We've contributed more than $100,000 to both of those charities.

"Likewise, when we did the bridge dinner party."

The Pastorale Dinner Party drew in a crowd of more than 100 to the Wollundry Lagoon Bridge when it was held for the first time in October 2023.

Another thing Mr Moffatt prides himself on is how much the business has grown since its establishment.

"The business has grown incredibly since day one from the number of customers walking through the doors to the financials at the end of the financial year - we're quite happy with where the business is," he said.

"The sale-ability of the business is arguably that it has a set team, it's a self-managing restaurant.

"I've developed a team that has my standards.

"We have a very strong back-of-house team in the kitchen. They've been with me since day one. They know my standards.

"I've spent a lot of time developing our front-of-house team, especially our venue managers.

"We do a lot of one-on-one training with our venue managers but we also invest in them quite heavily, we send them to Melbourne to do specialised training courses, so they're professionally trained and nobody else in Wagga is professionally training front-of-house managers."

Mr Moffatt said they've also invested thousands of dollars into taking their staff to Sydney and Melbourne to five-star motels and restaurants so they know first-hand what the city experience is.

"If the new owner can work with the teams and systems we put in place the restaurant can run itself, alternatively a new owner could come in with different ideas for the business and they may want to make some changes or see some improvements they could make," he said.

"They obviously have that ability to change Pastorale, but they also have the ability to inherit a ready-made system that has arguably the best reputation within the Riverina for hospitality.

"All you need is a little bit of gumption and good customer skills and with that I think you would be able to work with the team and the customer base we already have and work your own magic into Pastorale."

As for the space, Mr Moffatt said the restaurant itself was designed by professional designers and an architect.

"Where I think Pastorale is different to any other restaurant in the area is that our kitchen team is highly, highly experienced and trained, I have two fully qualified chefs and we have such a depth of knowledge," he said.

"It's proper a la carte service and I don't think anyone has ever had as much attention to detail and have actually hired professionally architect and designers to design a space.

"The food we've been able to produce is second-to-none, we work with a lot of producers but we're also not afraid to use importers."