Christopher Gooden, Co-owner of Seddon Deadly Sins Cafe

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Resident of West Footscray

I’m a fourth generation Australian. My paternal grandfather moved to Galore, near Wagga Wagga, in NSW. It has a population of six. His family chose the place for the water. My great-great-grandfather was English and a Protestant. He arrived from Somerset in England and married my great-great-grandmother who was Irish Catholic. They have over 300 descendants from that marriage. We are everywhere!

My childhood was spent on a 10,000-acre farm where you can’t see your neighbours – only motorbikes, horses, chickens, cows and 7,000 sheep. It’s an irrigation farm growing wheat and sorghum so there are plenty of water and mozzies. Even in summer, there are pools of water. The river has always been an important part of our life and childhood.

Simon and I were moving back to Australia 16 years ago after living in Toronto and London. We were thinking of going back to Sydney where we had lived before, but could not conceive what work I would do to pay for a $500,000 house.

As a result, we moved to Melbourne as houses then were only $300,000.

We were house-sitting in Armadale when we saw this business for sale. It was previously called Gallery Café – a sandwich bar without a kitchen. We came to look at it, and while driving back over the Westgate, Simon announced, “We are going to buy that and call it Seddon Deadly Sins.”

About six weeks later, we became owners of this business and have been here for fifteen and a half years.

Melbourne is a massive city, made up of pockets of communities. It’s important we appreciate people within the community as you become part of the fabric of daily life. Big malls and online shopping is the death of this culture.

You should go out for a walk, and chat. It’s important people understand where their food comes from. One way is to engage with the local baker and shopkeeper. If you trust your baker they won’t be selling you a shitty product and you will be happy with the service. Hopefully, they won’t be as greedy as the banks are!

I believe in shopping local. Three years ago, I walked past Alan Mance Holden. I know Alan and his family as they would come in for lunch every week. Conveniently my car was at the panel beaters. I was test driving cars at this time and asked if I could test drive a Citroen they had on display. When push came to shove, I was sitting across from Alan Mance himself, the man whose name is on the building. Negotiations take on a whole different approach when the salesman doesn’t have to leave the discussion to check with the boss.

I had to hold my ground and sit in a slightly tense silence while Alan made his decision. A few days later I was the owner of a brand new Commodore with 6km on the clock. My first brand new car, and my last Australian-made car.

Alan and his sons Phillip and Randall still come in for lunch every week. Once a month he would turn to me and ask “When are we getting a free lunch?” I would reply “When do I get a free Commodore?” Alan would smile pay the bill and walk away.

I get a lot of comments about my socks as I wear shorts all year round. Most of my socks actually come from Dimmeys. I go there a couple of times a year when Dimmeys has a sale at $1 each. They’re good socks! They’re so cheap you hardly need to bother washing them. I’d get half a dozen pairs or so; when they lose a partner they are interchangeable. I like socks from Aldi too as they’ve got good woollen winter socks.

I only wear pants for funerals and weddings. With Australia voting ‘YES’ in favour of same-sex marriage, I will need to get a new suit that fits me as I will needing good pants a lot more! My old suit is a bit snug. Perhaps that’s the only down-side to eating local (translation: eating very well).

Victoria Street used to be a 60 km/h zone, with Macedonian weddings happening across the road. Weddings still occur, but we no longer see circle-work (donut burnouts) in front of the church. Now there are Hummers instead of Mustangs. There are fewer hoops which is good, as it’s calmed the street down. I still love a good, fast car though!

The old neighbourhood was full of Macedonian and Greek post-war immigrants. They loved to fish. However with the generational change, that market is gone, and those families left. The buyers into this community now are younger couples; they seem to fit a pattern: Buy a fixer-upper, renovate, have kids and then realise there are no high schools here, and move out of this area.

We see these couples every now and then when they come back to visit, nostalgic to see their old house and their café. Some even come back to the Seddon Festival. It’s nice to see them when they come back.

When we first opened the café we had spent everything we had and more to buy it and started slaving away. One day, a lady came in with a baby. Simon was making her a coffee and watched her from across the room. He decided to engage with her instead of sitting at the back doing crosswords.

After he did that, he realised the difference between working in hospitality and being an owner is the opportunity to engage with your community. If you’re just a waiter, you can be lazy. If you’re an owner, you have the chance to set an example.

We are still friends with that woman. In fact, I had dinner with her a month ago, and that baby is now in high school.

Over the years, Simon and I realised how important it is to be part of the community. While being engaged involves lots of small conversations, I see it as continuity as well as the celebration of your past and history.

We don’t see that in a big city anymore. It gives us an authenticity; you can’t fake your childhood and providence if you can see it and live it. We appreciate being part of, not only the business community here in Seddon but also the social community and relish being ‘locals’.

The confidence we get from the support of the locals enables us to contribute and share. We have had the chance to mentor young people, provide hospitality training and even initiate local celebrations to recognise moments important to the community.

We should be proud of where we came from and what our parents have done and how hard they have worked to get us to where we are. Most importantly, we should search for and understand our roots and village. I’ve been to Tower Hill Cemetery in Kororoit to visit my great-great Grandfather’s grave several times over the years.

I love recycling furniture as every piece has a story and providence. We can recycle a vodka bottle into a water bottle or an old church pew from Gamon Street for a bench. There is such a delight with reusing things with a different purpose. I believe it’s important to be more considerate about how and when we consume or use everyday things.

We don’t have plastic straws at Seddon Deadly Sins. You can have a paper one, but you have to ask. Use your lips!! People don’t use straws at home, so why do they ask for a straw in a café? It’s just a waste. Our glasses are clean – washed at 80 degrees. I’m a firm believer in being responsible for the footprint we create, and that goes with toilet papers, tubes of toothpaste and even disposable consumables. I like to make sure I get the most out of them before buying a new one.

I love meeting the fascinating people who live in the Inner West. I woke up a few months ago wondering how I could provide a positive message about marriage equality. The simplicity of LGBTQI is it’s an amalgamation of all these little facets of people who can be excluded by parts of our society, and coming together and uniting around an important social value.

Gay people from every part of the globe have a common story about coming out. We all have the same kind of childhood – not fitting into the heterosexual normality. Once we share these stories we realise we have much more in common with other queers than we do with other heteros. Together, we have a bigger voice than fighting the battle alone.

At the end of August, we decided to paint the Sins’ cafe wall with a big, white ‘Yes’ with help from Melbourne-based artist David Lee Pereira. I didn’t ask the landlord for permission, but her boyfriend wrote on Facebook, asking me if “the landlord approved it?” I replied to him “You should roll over and ask her!”

The answer was yes. As a tenant, it’s my responsibility to keep the building in good, graffiti-free condition but I think we can get away with it for a while longer.

We have had young parents with their two-year-old and a texta, signing the wall. It’s a wonderful thing. These parents are telling their kids why it’s important to sign the wall. That’s the future. The pendulum swings left and right, but we have to get the most out of this swing. I hope in the future people will wonder why we even had this debate.

This is perhaps the thing I love the most about being part of the Seddon community – equal opportunities to contribute to, share with, and enjoy what others give to our community.

 

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