Audrey Coffee has no plans to cross the river, with its third cafe set to open in Howrah as the business continues to expand on the eastern shore of Hobart.
Owner Peter Ladyman opened the first cafe in Rosny Park seven years ago, adding a Rokeby venue a little over a year later.
He said there seemed to be few coffee shops on the eastern shore except “lovely little gems hidden amongst it” when he started.
“The eastern shore in particular has just become such a big part of our identity and our story and I really like the fact that we kind of only have shops over here,” Ladyman told Pulse.
“I kind of want to keep giving back to this community and keep opening them here.”
He said customers often asked why Audrey did not open in the CBD or Sandy Bay, where there was more foot traffic and more tourists.
“We’re not trying to be like everyone else, we’re trying to build something unique and special that belongs to this side of the river,” he said.
“The eastern shore is where we live and belong, where our kids go to school.”
Customers asked almost daily where the next cafe would open, Ladyman said, with 55 people suggesting Lindisfarne in response to a recent online post. The business had also been looking at the suburb.
“The next half were like Howrah and Cambridge or Sorell,” he said.
He said people seemed to be “crying out for stuff here”.
“Our customers are so good to us that we thought, like, why not keep reinvesting on this side, you know?” he said.
The Howrah site came to his attention after he met people over a beer while on holiday at Sisters Beach on the north-west coast. They recommended he look at a vacant former hairdresser on Howrah Road.
Ladyman said he was not concerned about opening too close to the existing cafes, saying they serviced different areas of the eastern shore.
“We are very much making the lives of a lot of our customers even easier by not having to travel to the Rosny or Rokeby shop,” he said.
Some trade from the Rosny Park cafe “might get sectioned off into Howrah, but it’s also just an opportunity to meet new people in those areas”.
The Howrah cafe will have the same menu and staff as Audrey’s other venues.
It will be the first of his cafes fitted out from scratch with a designer and builder, featuring blackwood, stainless steel and concrete floors.
Ladyman described the fit-out as “very intentional”.
The Howrah shop is expected to open in the next two weeks.
