Justin Parle and Tom Ridgewell, Business owners

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Childhood friends and local business owners of Westerly Cafe.

Justin – “We are family friends and have known each other since we were two. There is a photo of us sitting in Westerly. It was given to us by our parents, who are friends since uni days. Westerly is our first venture out together, and it’s been a whirlwind experience. Everything has just snowballed and we are blown away by the local community’s caring nature.

I was doing my 4th year carpentry apprenticeship in 2016 when I hurt my back and was told I would need surgery to get better. This, on top of being out of work for nine months, made me consider my options. I didn’t want to stay at home doing nothing, and started thinking what I could do. Tom had just gotten back from Darwin after completing his studies. I have considered doing something business-ey previously, but I have no café experience.

Tom, on the other hand, has a great hospitality background and I figured if I can do the carpentry stuff, and he applies his café experience, we could flirt with the idea of opening a café. I remember turning to Tom and said “Wouldn’t that be cool? Like a pie in the sky thing.”

We were attracted to the Inner-West as Tom grew up in the West so he was familiar with the area. Feeling inspired, I remember going online, looking for “Businesses for sale” and we found this place. It was in a good location, good main strip, next to the coin laundry, good foot traffic and most importantly it was a manageable size.

We also had a vision for it, and wanted to use conceptual and practical skills that we both have to make the café work. Because it’s quite small, we knew we needed a good reason for people to return. We started basing it around really good coffee, and have a simple menu with really good ingredients.

Neither of us are chefs, so we can’t be pretentious. Rather, we just enjoy making simple, good stuff where people can bring their kids, relax and be comfortable. We didn’t want to showboat either and announce ourselves in the community loudly, so our sign is very small, instead hoping to use word of mouth to get ourselves out.”

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Tom – “I now live in Coburg, but prior to going to Darwin, I have lived in the West all my life. Moving back from Darwin, I was always aware that this is a good community. I remember going to the movies in the Sun Theatre and seeing the area develop. This area used to have a country town feeling. I was working in a café as a barista 10 years ago, and an old customer in real estate came in and told me Kingsville is the future of Melbourne. “If I could buy a house, this is where everything is happening” he said. Naturally, when we started looking for a shop, I started looking around Kingsville.

I am interested in Arts and Design, but spent a lot of time playing music. As a result, I developed an interest in the Melbourne music scene. Through studying and playing music, I found myself in a lot of hospitality positions and developed a passion for good coffee. I am obsessed with coffee. I drink and make a lot of it.

Justin and I want to make food that you could make in your own home, but with the best quality products we can find. Our goal in 2017 is to create a good, positive environment for everyone. We enjoy coming to work. No matter how tired we are, we don’t dread the day. Going forward, Westerly is planning to have good wines, serve up cheese platters and a good after-work place for community groups and people to meet up.

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