Queensland cafe owners reveal their secrets to success

In the fickle food industry with trends, fads and new diets, cafes often close as fast as they opened. But there are a few institutions in Queensland that have stood the test of time, so what is their secret to success?

New parents sit at the table sipping their coffee while they rock their baby to sleep in the pram beside them. Nearby, a group of friends fill the room with laughter as they catch up over breakfast and by the wall, a man reads the newspaper with his usual coffee order.

Inside the busy Anouk cafe in Brisbane’s hilly inner-city suburb of Paddington, people have found a sense of belonging.

And moving between the tables, chatting to the regulars and welcoming newcomers with a warm smile, is owner Justine Whelan, a woman who has been making diners feel at home for decades.

Justine Whelan at Anouk in Paddington, Brisbane. (AAP Image/Claudia Baxter)

“When you open your doors, you invite the world in … it’s like family,” says Whelan, 50, as she chats to U on Sunday sitting at a table at her cafe.

“You see warts and all, you see good days and bad days, births, deaths and marriages, emotions, when they (customers) move away and then come back again, it’s a really wonderful thing.”

This type of community, as well as decades of bold menus, is how Whelan says she’s survived in an industry that’s become exponentially harder to keep up.

Australia’s cafe culture is expanding rapidly with new trends, fads and diets fuelling a food revolution promising diners the next ‘big thing.’ But there’s a group of Queensland cafe owners who have been there from the beginning and are still thriving.

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Alongside Whelan, Ben O’Donoghue and wife De-arn Wicks from Billykart Kitchen and Andrew Whiting of Elk Espresso, have created thriving businesses that have become local food institutions.

They’re also the people who have helped influence the state’s popular brunch scene.

About 22 years ago, Whelan was finishing a theatre degree at QUT while opening the doors of Tongue and Groove in West End with her ex-husband. It was far from the buzzing cafe-saturated suburb it is now.

“Hardgrave Road was totally different, there was nothing there at all,” recalls Whelan, a mother to Frances, 33, Hannah, 30 and Harry, 27.

“We were small and it was just me out the front, we only sat 35 people and had milk crates up and down the footpath.

“Although I think style wise it’s still relevant, we had two huge speakers and a turntable, it was hipster central … I look at what the job looks like now compared to then and how did I possibly have the time to change records?” she laughs.

As a young girl, Whelan lived all over the world in places like PNG, Darwin and Brisbane, following her father’s work in education. The family settled in Rockhampton when she was 10 and five years later, she got her first job in hospitality as a waitress. “It’s an embarrassing mental picture … think grey tunic with a pink ruffled apron,” laughs Whelan, who admits she used to work at B+S balls.

Anouk in Paddington, Brisbane. (AAP Image/Claudia Baxter)

It was enough to whet her appetite, so years later when she went all in opening her first cafe, she knew she’d found her calling. In 1999, she left Tongue and Groove and one year later, opened The Gunshop alongside chef Matt Christensen. Here she helped reinvent the way people ate breakfast in the city.

At the time, she contributed to a menu that was bold, brave and rarely seen before in the city.

“We were doing seafood for breakfast, Asian stir fries, we had bowls and things like Pho for breakfast … Pho is not a crazy out there breakfast meal, there is a nation that eats it for breakfast, it’s just taking it from its original setting and putting it in a different context,” she says.

It was risky and she admits, “entirely accidental”, but it paid off and The Gunshop (which is still hugely popular today) was a gamechanger in Brisbane’s brunch scene.

Since she sold The Gunshop in 2006 and opened Anouk in 2007, Whelan says she doesn’t follow trends, just what she’s craving, classic flavours.

“You can reinvent the cooking technique but good food is good food,” she says.

“Breakfast pasta is a massive thing for us, it is like carbonara with truffle oil and an egg on top,” she says.

“Stick an egg on anything and it’s breaky.”

Ben O'Donoghue and De-arne Wicks are behind Billykart at Annerley. Pic Mark Cranitch.

Celebrity chef Ben O’Donoghue, who worked with Jamie Oliver, has been pushing the same boundaries since he opened Billykart Kitchen in Annerley in 2012 and later in West End.

“One of the big things for us is changing the menus every month,” he says.

“We get locals that will come two to three times within that month and they get excited for the next thing that comes along and that’s one thing that keeps us relevant.”

O’Donoghue, a good friend of Jamie Oliver’s, lived the high life in London cooking for big names like Barak Obama, Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Robert De Niro before appearing on ABC’s Surfing The Menu. When O’Donoghue and Wicks moved to Brisbane in 2008 to be closer to family, there were barely any suburban cafes. When they found an old corner store in Annerley they wanted to convert into a cafe, people said it would never last. Seven years on, it’s one of the busiest cafes in the city.

“There was nothing around here, we were one of the first cafes in the area and the previous owner of the shop said to us she was never busy and we were crazy,” he laughs.

“We’ve seen the area changing, younger people are moving in and the older families are selling up and moving into retirement places and you experience that change in the neighbourhood.

“We need to remain connected and engaged with the community.”

But a few things have never changed, their passion for innovative food.

“Our corn fritters have been on the menu since day one and our buttermilk pancakes, we have been doing in a number of ways since the start,” he says.

Elk Espresso owner Andrew Whiting. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

For Andrew Whiting, who has owned Elk Espresso in Broadbeach for 10 years, says the growing competition has only made him stronger.

“The amount of other operators who were opening great establishments when I was younger really threatened me, but four or five years into owning Elk, I realised it only makes you lift your standards,” he says.

Whiting, 37, a father to Lola, 6, Max, 4, and Leo, almost 2, opened his first cafe, Vintage, in 2007 when he was 25. They were among the first to style in retro furniture, 50s wallpaper and eclectic furniture. Business boomed and he opened Elk two years later.

“Back then, people were going to major cities to get their fix of culture and food rather than the Gold Coast,” he says.

“We thought, rather than moving away for that, it was the perfect opportunity to create it and that’s how business got traction really fast.”

“Now Elk is so busy, we see thousands and it’s very rewarding to see 10 years on, people are travelling to see us.”

Over the years, Whelan, O’Donoghue and Whiting have all steered Queensland’s brunch industry into the thriving scene it is today. Whether it’s for their food or service, they’ve all collected a legion of fans and it’s those people who they say have made them the success they are.

“There is something extra special that happens in southeast Queensland that’s really low-key and loyal and it’s just awesome,” Whelan says, looking around the people in her cafe.

“It is those people who really define what the business is and how it is going to evolve, or if it is going to evolve … it’s a family.”