Greenhill Rd parking problems lead to closure of Bracegirdle’s Toorak Gardens chocolate shop
ONE of the country’s best chocolatiers has closed the doors to its Toorak Gardens dessert bar after more than a decade of serving up sweets and treats, blaming an extended clearway zone as the final straw.
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ONE of the country’s best chocolatiers has closed the doors to its Toorak Gardens dessert bar after more than a decade of serving up sweets and treats.
Bracegirdle’s House of Fine Chocolate closed on Sunday after 11 years on Greenhill Rd.
Sue Bracegirdle, who opened the cafe in 2007 with husband Garry, said they had decided against extending their lease due to parking problems.
“Parking has become absolutely impossible,” Mrs Bracegirdle said.
“There isn’t any parking and just recently parking out on Greenhill Rd has been cut out.
“A lot of people have to park in the side streets or elsewhere just to find a space.”
Clearway hours along Greenhill Rd, between Anzac Highway and Glynburn Rd, were extended last year in a bid to improve traffic flow.
A Transport Department spokesman said the change aimed to tackle peak-hour congestion and improve road safety.
He said there had a one-minute improvement in travel times along Greenhill Rd since the changes were introduced.
But Mrs Bracegirdle said while the clearway changes were relatively minor, they had further intensified parking issues for shop owners in the area, prompting them to pull the pin.
The couple opened their first Bracegirdle’s store in Glenelg in 2005, after experimenting with homemade chocolate recipes.
They now have more than 85 staff at stores in Clarence Gardens, McLaren Vale and Marion.
“We moved into Glenelg and was just selling imported chocolate, but as Garry loved hot chocolates and there wasn’t much around we began to trial things,” Mrs Bracegirdle said.
Since then, the business has taken out awards at the Royal Adelaide Show and other competitions across the country.
Despite their national success, Mrs Bracegirdle admits using some unconventional techniques to get customers in the door during the early days on Greenhill Rd.
“When we first opened it, nobody knew who were or what we did as they no dessert cafes around at that time,” she said.
“To get noticed, one of the girls would go out to the cars parked at the stop lights and give people a sample of hot chocolate or ice chocolate.
“They gave some to a couple of plain-clothed policemen who told them not to do it, but they came around the block again and got another one.”
The latest closure comes only three years after the couple shut its store on Kensington Rd, next to the Regal Theatre.
While there were no immediate plans for a return to the east, Mrs Bracegirdle would not rule it out.
“Never say never,” she said.
“All of the businesses we have opened, none of them have been planned.
“It has always been opportunistic where something has presented itself.”
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