Creative juices flow as cafe moves to stay afloat during COVID-19

Jayitri Smiles

First published 15 June 2020, 12:34pm

Roasting Warehouse owner George Parasakevopoulos and business partner Hash Tayeh. Picture: Rob Leeson.

An Airport West eatery has come out on top during coronavirus, which flipped the business on its head just months after it first opened.

Roasting Warehouse director George Paraskevopoulos says it was a “matter of survival” for the new cafe and wholesale coffee business to find creative ways to stay afloat.

He quickly teamed up with Hash Tayeh to open burger joint, The Burgertory, and a small grocery store inside the 1600sqm warehouse amid government restrictions.

“We now have a business that runs from 6am to 10pm and we’ve been very surprised with its success … it’s a good result, which keeps you very sane during coronavirus,” Paraskevopoulos says.

“I’m a little bit more optimistic going into the future with the way our model has changed, because it’s paying staff, rent and finance costs.”

The burger business is now set to stay and has converted from delivery to dine-in as the company welcomed customers back through the doors.

“It wasn’t something I would have done before coronavirus, but in the face of the unknown it gives me confidence to continue running this model,” Paraskevopoulos says.

The cafe owner also operates a number of city-based coffee shops, which he says have taken a much harder hit during the pandemic than those in the suburbs.

“I’ve worked for 20 years in the CBD and there’s been nothing like coronavirus for those businesses,” he says.

“The fact Roasting Warehouse is in the suburbs was an accidental decision, but now I prefer to be out here.”

CBRE retail services director Zelman Ainsworth says hospitality tenants have “refocused their energy on recovery”, and wouldn’t go “back to an inefficient way of working” after the pandemic.

He says that while many businesses needed rent reductions during the pandemic, they were emerging with better company practices and new ideas.

“There’s also a real push from tenants to lease spaces that already have existing fit-outs, so there’s less cost involved,” Ainsworth says.

This article from The Herald Sun originally appeared as “Airport West cafe gets creative to stay afloat amid coronavirus”.

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