Ze Pickle Camp Hill owner Sean Haufe to open Hawthorne store
A young restaurant baron went from losing “a house deposit” on a failed venture to opening in a ritzy Brisbane suburb.
Southeast
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An up-and-coming burger restaurant will open its fourth Brisbane outlet next Wednesday in a blue-ribbon suburb in the city’s east.
Owner Sean Haufe, who played Division 1 rugby league with the Bulimba Bulldogs as a winger last year, said opening Ze Pickle Hawthorne, right next to the Cineplex, is the perfect way to cap off a “rollercoaster” year.
Mr Haufe, who opened Ze Pickle Camp Hill in August 2017, said the fit-out for Hawthorne has been under way for the past two-and-a-half months but the idea had been gestating since last year.
“When I was driving to and from footy training, I just thought what an absolutely perfect location,” he tells the Courier Mail.
“There was a gap in the market.
“Ze Pickle is an established franchise, there’s no other store like it.
“We’ll have table service, there’s 12 tap beers and we’ll be supporting local brewers.
“We’ve hired 10 new local employees and especially after COVID-19 that’s a good thing.
“I haven’t even mentioned the food, that’s just the icing on the cake.”
However, perhaps befitting a year like no other, it has not been all smooth sailing for the ambitious young business owner.
Mr Haufe said much of his 2020 was sunk into legal wrangling following the virus-induced stillbirth of another business venture in the area.
“That went south and I basically spent a house deposit,” Mr Haufe admitted.
But that’s in the past now and Mr Haufe, who was a diesel fitter before he caught the Ze Pickle bug by spending most of his days off at the burger chain’s original outlet at Burleigh Heads, is looking forward to one thing: “nailing the first couple of weeks.”
“Hawthorne is a small area and word spreads by mouth,” he said.
Hawthorne will join Mr Haufe’s other store at Camp Hill and two others in Brisbane, at Fortitude Valley and Brisbane Airport’s Domestic Terminal.
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