Maple Cafe Launceston opens new CBD venue after mad 72 hours

A Tasmanian cafe which outgrew its original home has just served its first brunch at its second venue, with the crew banding together to transform an eatery which closed just three days prior.

It is an old axiom that teamwork makes the dream work – never has that been truer than in Tasmania’s north this week, where the crew behind a beloved cafe transformed a CBD eatery in just 72 hours to have their second venue ready by Thursday.

Co-owner of East Launceston institution Maple Cafe, Kelly Gladman, told the Mercury it was a madcap three days for the business, as they managed to flip The Eatery on Cameron, whose lease expired on Sunday, into Maple’s new CBD venue by Thursday.

Ms Gladman put the swift transformation down to the help of her “loving family” and the staff who “kept the wheels turning” at the original Abbott St cafe as the rest got their hands dirty on Cameron St.

A special shout-out went out to her tradie dad, who “made all the furniture ready to go”.

Ms Gladman said, with casual functions returning since the end of Covid restrictions, the time was ripe for Maple Cafe to expand its footprint.

Manager Bianca Callegari, who returned to her native Tasmania 30 months ago after a stint in Perth managing a nightclub, said she wanted the new Maple Cafe to be known as fun, inviting and family friendly – “bubbly”.

Ms Gladman, who previously worked at Titanium Bar and Bistro before purchasing the East Launceston cafe alongside brother Matty a year ago, had a different phrase for it: the “new Maple pop”.

The CBD spin-off will serve the same menu as the East Launceston original, aside from differing specials on the two boards, but would have an added focus on takeaways to cater for the nine-to-five crowd.

The second cafe continues Maple’s evolution: it was founded on Abbott St about five years ago after the previous owners redeveloped the site, which was formerly a BP service station and fish and chip shop called Net 19.

In a sense, this represents the turning of a full circle for Ms Gladman: her first job was manning the deep fryer at the Prospect Fish Shop.