#156, Sven Almenning, founder, Behind Bars agency (Australia), and Australian cocktail bars Eau de Vie, Nick & Nora’s, The Roosevelt, The Sanderson, Pearl Diver & Mjolner Viking steakhouses, 13 April 2026

What can you say about the extravagantly-bearded Norwegian Sven Almenning, who at one stage owned the world's largest bar agency, based in Sydney, running best-in-class bartender engagement programs at scale, and has since morphed into a tycoon of the Australian cocktail bar scene, with 8 or so top-notch venues in Sydney, Melbourne and the like?Well, quite a lot it seems!We talked about savant vibes master Max Greco (quite a bit, in fact), what it takes to create a great bar now in Australia vs 16 years ago, banter becoming an endangered species, the death of staff-hugging, what changed with bartender contests, and how he bribed his kids with screen time if they did exercise, only to see them regulate their own screen time as they began to enjoy exercising more and more, while the IG they created (link below) to share family High Intensity workouts exploded to 644, 000 followers, with another 260, 000 on Facebook (link also below). It's a great chat with an old friend, recorded while we were both in the same time zone, thank God. Sven's Speakeasy Group: https://speakeasygroup.com.au/Family HIIT workouts on IG: https://www.instagram.com/fam_hiit_squad/Family HIIT workouts on FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealFamHIITSquad/ (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  [email protected] (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.)  And our AI automatically deletes pitch emails that are clearly written using AI. Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: [email protected] on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Faceboo...