Agents save the day at Adelaide cafe

When an Adelaide CBD cafe owner was injured at work, it was the split-second decision of two real estate agents that helped to save the day.

Ray White Norwood agents Sam Brincat and Jason Spagnuolo were headed to their regular haunt Cafe #12, on Halifax St, when they were faced with an unlikely situation.

“There seemed to be a lot of mayhem and there was an ambulance out front,” Brincat says.

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“A gentleman had fallen down outside and broken his arm, which turned out to be the owner, and some of the other staff were trying to make coffee and couldn’t do it.”

Brincat says they had a light bulb moment and after a quick chat decided to grab property manager Taylor Drewer, who had previously worked as a barista.

“There was a line up and everyone was very frustrated, so we said we would send Taylor down to make coffee,” he says.

“We know what it’s like when someone doesn’t turn up to work and someone else has to manage it, but when you have actual customers waiting at the counter – I can imagine the owner would’ve been very worried.”

Jason Spagnuolo and Sam Brincat, directors of Ray White Norwood, and Ziad Omacha, owner of Cafe #12. Pic: Keryn Stevens.

Although Ray White Norwood received plenty of praise, Brincat sayd it should be commonplace for people to help each other in times of hardship.

“We had plenty of people email saying they thought what we did was amazing, but we weren’t thinking about that at the time,” he sayd.

“I think naturally by helping the community and the people around you it creates an expectation that everyone can lean on each other, which is unfortunately rare these days.”

Cafe #12 owner Ziad Omacha says he can’t express how to thank the agents for their quick thinking.

“The boys helped with everything and Taylor took over while my wife called a friend, we would have had to make people wait if we didn’t have the help,” he says.

Omacha says he is incredibly lucky to be surrounded with so many nice people, with everyone helping out in the time of need.

“The customers understood something was wrong, everyone was taking the dishes to the kitchen, dropping their left overs in the bin – some customers have come back just to say welcome back,” he said.

“I couldn’t express how to thank them, I’m very grateful.”

This article from The Advertiser originally appeared as “Ray White Norwood make a ‘grounds’ breaking gesture to a local cafe in a time of need”.