INDUSTRY FEATURE: ROCKWALL
AFTER spendingmore than half his life immersed within Hobart’s hospitality industry, one of the city’s most popular restaurateurs has decided to hang up his boots. Garry Baker has never been one to take his foot off the gas. But 36 years after he first moved to Tasmania from Melbourne for a “one year” experiment, one of Hobart’s most well renowned and popular restaurateurs will finally take a back seat from the day-to-day workings of hospitality. Baker and his partner Susan Catchpool have been the faces of Salamanca hot spot Rockwall Bar and Grill for the past 15 years, a steakhouse which has become a haven for not only locals but national and international travellers, sporting stars and politicians alike. It has been the couple’s dream venture but the time has come for the duo to head into retirement if only perhaps of a semi version. A former VFL star who played 147 matches for Footscray, Melbourne and Sydney in the 1970s and 80s, “Bull” Baker got his first taste of hospitality
life while playing for the Demons under Australian Football Hall of Fame legend Ron Barassi, planting the seed for what would eventually become a passion. “I was one of those people that was no good at school, back at Leongatha high school, I failed form two twice, which they call grade eight or year eight over here,” Baker says. “Two years in a row I failed. So the day I turned 15, which was the leaving school age, my old man said, ‘you’re useless at school, come and work with me at the service station’. “Twelve months after he took on a partner that had another bigger service station… and the partner sacked me because I was no good. “So I got kicked out of school because I was no good, and then I’m probably the only bloke that has been sacked from his old man’s company because he’s no good as well. “I went out bricklaying for a couple of years but then I found this thing that I was half good at called footy, so I started playing and then I got a letter from a VFL club to go and train. “Back in those days in the early 70s we didn’t get paid too much, but along the way you built up confidence to do what you do. “At that stage in the 70s a lot of the footballers were getting into pubs and I always thought I’d
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