When you walk into Café 57, you can immediately feel an atmosphere of friendliness. Is this what makes this little café so popular? Or is it the coffee or the food?
When asked what it is that attracts people, café owner Evvie says: "It's the people here. They are genuinely nice people – they talk to one another when they enter the café; they make friends. The clientele is 70 per cent people who come every day."
Evvie and her husband came to Pinewood Shopping Square, Mt Waverley (Monash, Victoria), several years ago. They saw an opportunity because Pinewood didn't have a café and the location was good, being straight off the freeway.
"Café 57 started off being a café," says Evvie, "but because of the people who come here, they have made us change. We have table meals now, which we didn't have before."
All the staff take pride in their people contact; customers are not considered a number when they come in.
"It's a family business - there are four of us on board," says Evvie. "Both boys are coffee baristas. They know their coffees and when you're in a good coffee place, you generally know it."
The food is gourmet and the presentation is quite different to other places. "Focaccias are everywhere, but they don't look like our focaccias," smiles Evvie.
Café 57 is open for breakfast, lunch – with a glass of wine – and afternoon tea. Plans have been made to extend the café, but Evvie said that it won't happen until March next year as processing the paperwork with the council takes time. She is very philosophical about the delay and says: "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. It will be nice when it's done."
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