Three years ago when Tuck Shop Café Co-owners Vanessa Hondros and husband and wife team Iva and Paul Cherry began discussing décor for their soon-to-be-opened Perth café, they looked to their menu for inspiration.
“We wanted to create a really welcoming and relaxing environment,” says Vanessa. “We had all of the furniture custom made to best fit the space, and the golden brown that splashes across the walls echoes the warm comfort of our food.”
Tuck Shop Café offers Perth’s coffee lovers a chance to sample Toby’s Estate’s Woolloomooloo blend.
Vanessa says this blend is a syrupy well-rounded coffee with notes of spice, earth, cocoa, and caramel. Tuck Shop Café uses this blend for its milk-based coffees.
Toby’s Estate’s single origin coffees are rotated regularly to give customers a chance to experience different beans from producing nations.
In addition to its coffee, Tuck Shop Café serves a range of dishes using flavours from around the globe.Although the produce is purchased locally, Chef Paul Cherry’s past travels to Northern Africa, Morocco and Asia has had a big influence on his cooking.
“It’s nice being able to introduce our customers to some flavours that they might not have tried before,” says Vanessa. “Especially since we’ve got such great regulars who’ve been with us from the very start.”
Not many dishes say warmth and comfort quite like a fresh baked pie, which Vanessa says Tuck Shop Café has become quite well known for.
Tuck Shop Café’s pies are made in-house, using real butter pastry and a variety of slow-cooked fillings. Just like the rest of the menu, the pies are available from breakfast time until close of shop.
Toby’s Estate held an exclusive cupping session at the café in June, with Paul providing canapés while guests sampled from Brazil’s Cup of Excellence top six coffees.