Iain Munro, Business owner

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Resident of Yarraville

Local business owner of Cornershop

I am originally from Lanarkshire, just outside Glasgow. Growing up, I have always worked in hospitality. I have managed nightclubs, cafes and bars both overseas and locally. While I was overseas in Prague, I met my wife, soulmate and best friend Clare. She’s originally from up Warrnambool way, but studied and grew up in Melbourne.

After dating for a while, we decided to get married but realized we were from opposite sides of the world. I decided to follow her to Melbourne. That was 18 years ago.

I was drawn to St Kilda because of the palm trees (something you don’t see in Scotland!). Clare, however, wanted to be in Brunswick as she was based there while studying. The first few years in Melbourne, I did various corporate jobs to get by, but didn’t like them at all.

The West End of Glasgow has lots of cake shops and cafes and there’s a nice Italian influence. I have always wanted to open my own café. I even dreamt of opening one up in Glasgow, but that obviously didn’t happen.

One day, Clare and I decided to go on a road trip and headed up north to Queensland. We were in an internet shop and I casually looked up ‘Cafes for sale’, and Seddon came up.

I had heard of Seddon, as people have mentioned it was up and coming. I remember giving the guy a phone call, and he thought we were from Queensland. We came back to Melbourne, checked out the shop, liked what we saw and bought it. That was 15 years ago.

The café was called Le Chien, or ‘The Dog’. The name has always been there. I guess it’s a homage to the Western Bulldogs. Clare and I ran Le Chien, I cooked the food while she made coffee.

After five very successful years, we decided to move on and venture into something else and let our business partner take over Le Chien.

The Cornershop space was still vacant when we were running Le Chien and after we sold, an opportunity came up there so we took it. It’s called Cornershop as ‘it’s just what it is – on a corner’. We are open seven days a week and there are lots of different aspects to Cornershop, there is nighttime and daytime, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Cornershop hasn’t really changed over the years, but we have invested in it. We have a really loyal customer base with long-standing regulars. A lot of what we do is familiarity; they already know what they want when they walk through the door. They won’t even look at the menu.

Our menu is seasonal and we only use fresh produce. Due to our customer base, some aspects of the menu won’t change as there are some ‘go to’ dishes that people come for.

There is something for everyone in Yarraville. I like that Yarraville is not like a shopping strip, with the close streets and village feel giving it a certain charm. It’s like a small town, where everybody knows everybody. Obviously, the Sun Theatre is a big drawcard as the owners have done a fantastic job.

All the business owners here work together and create a destination within Yarraville. We are creating something for everybody; they can come to Cornershop one day and the next day go next door. That is the beauty of choice. All we can do is keep a close eye and maintain the level of service and products.

I strive to be “as good as I can get” and this follows me in my own downtime as well. Besides the joys of three children, I love running long distance, cycling and in particular fly fishing up in the high country for trout. I fished quite a lot as a young lad in Scotland, and I find myself often heading to the Goulburn Valley. I could go by myself or with friends and get stuck in the middle of nowhere. In this industry, you need time away from work as when I am back in Melbourne, I am always thinking about Cornershop.

These days, Clare no longer making coffee. She is now a local teacher. For me, I can see myself running Cornershop for another 10 years and will continue to be engaged with the community.

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