Why Fishbowl, one of Sydney’s fastest-growing food chains, is going cashless

An incredibly successful two-year-old food business run by a pair of 25-year-olds with a passion for design and tasty seafood, Fishbowl prides itself on efficiency, cleanliness and style. But its latest push to become still cooler and less wasteful could prove divisive: the stores are currently in the process of becoming completely cashless.

Starting with one 28-metre-square store in Bondi in 2016, Fish Bowl has since grown to seven locations across Sydney, with a forecasted turnover of $15 million for 2018. There are three more locations planned for the next year.

The idea for Fishbowl came to its founders Nathan Dalah and Nic Pestalozzi after a trip to the US, where a new wave of restaurants serving poke (Hawaiian raw fish salad) was emerging. Taking advantage of Australia's access to high quality fish and produce, the menu is designed to be prepared and served quick while still being clean and healthy.

"We hit a niche at the right time which saw us go into a really pumping summer," Dalah tells Fairfax Media, "and from there we found a second site in Darlinghurst. We kind of just funded the second site with the first, funded the third with the first two and so on." Read more

Tim Biggs -  Brisbane Times - 8 Jun 2018