We are now three weeks into the adventure that is EARL Canteen and while the first two weeks are somewhat hazy – everything you’ve ever heard about opening a hospitality business is true – we have now had some time to take a deep breath and reflect.

A few things to share with you:

In all our years in hospitality, we have never seen such a strong core of regulars develop so quickly. It is truly wonderful to see the same faces coming back through the door, becoming a part of someone’s day; every day is a special thing. To have people pull you aside and tell you how much they love what you are doing, or to ask for a recipe makes it all worthwhile. To all our regulars, thank you.

Oh, and the record is a pork belly sandwich four days running, respect.

We planned on attracting customers from a three block radius of 500 Bourke St. Well, let me tell you that we have customers every day who travel substantially further than that. We’ve had the sandwiches in the back of the scooter heading to St Kilda, we’ve had blokes coming from Spring St for pork belly and we’ve had more requests for suburban outposts than we can remember. The prize though goes to the chap who sent someone for takeaway – to Oakleigh.

Value. When it comes to food and beverage, it’s a subjective thing.

A bottle of wine for $100? A main course at $60? A sandwich at $15?

Our plan was to bring high end restaurant sensibilities to a takeaway sandwich context. Strange, we know, but if you think about it, every culture has their version, everybody has their favourite and it’s ultimately portable. We think it’s a nice idea.

We want to offer the very best product we can. That means we want to serve the kind of food we would eat ourselves at home. Local, ethical, sustainable and free-range. Food the way it’s meant to be and tastes the way it’s meant to taste. The thing is, it’s always going to cost a little more. Let me explain

Pork Belly:
Otway pork, bred free range surely has to taste better than a caged pig. Think of what’s required to keep an unhealthy pig alive in a dark, claustrophobic cage. Actually, we’d rather not think about that.

Add to that mayonnaise, made in house with Green Eggs. There is a waiting list for these eggs, put your name down and wait till they call you. Why? They are simply great eggs from happy chickens. We split 80 last week and only broke one yolk!

Bread is Dench Bakers baguette. Hand crafted bread that actually tastes like bread, baked probably only 12 hours before we serve it at EARL.

So how can we compete with your average (or below average) sandwich shop that cuts produce costs to offer ‘value’?

For every product we produce ourselves we could purchase a cheaper pre-made version but would it still taste as good? Well no.

We could buy ‘muffin mix’ ready for the baking cheaper than what we could make it ourselves. I’m a little scared by all those numbers in the ingredients listing. Or, we could buy muffins that have an eight day shelf life? We wonder why there are more food allergies today? Hmmm….

At EARL Canteen we would love to be able to offer you the pork belly at half the price, but the simple fact is that it wouldn’t be the same product. Either that or we’d be committing commercial suicide! This philosophy follows through to every, single product we sell.

We thought it important to document this philosophy early on in the development of EARL. We have strong feelings when it comes to food and regardless of where this crazy journey takes us, this philosophy will always be at the core. We think it represents good value.

Cheers

Simon

Today was a sad day. We ran out of macarons.

For the past three weeks there have been a constant stream of people walking directly into EARL making a beeline for the macaron display. In fact, our staff reckon they can pick a macaron buyer as they walk in the door they walk with such conviction and purpose.

We sold our last seven this morning although I have saved two salted caramel for the weekend. To give to a certain cafe owner whose establishment I frequent. He offered me 2 risottos, 3 pork belly sandwiches and 10kg of his finest coffee beans for just one. I’m gonna take him 2 and see what happens…

A lady walked in this afternoon and thanked me for selling out. It was like our macarons were her vice – she didn’t want to, she just couldn’t help herself. Such is the power of the macaron.

It is then with great relief that I inform you all of a new delivery coming our way tomorrow (Friday) morning. We will be posting the flavours on the website as they change so you know what we have available. Coming tomorrow are coffee and rose. Imagine a coffee macaron to start the day, now you are talking.

Cheers

Simon

EARL opens at 7.30am weekdays. For a bunch of night-owls we think we are doing all right, the espresso machine is usually the first port of call at that hour though!

Breakfast at EARL is about to get stepped up a notch as we launch our menu proper very soon. We are talking breakfast sandwiches with a difference, not your usual suspects. It’s an important meal after all and you can’t go trusting your breakfast to just anyone.

So whilst we are full of breaky inspiration (and have notebooks to prove it!), we are keen to hear from you all, about what rocks your world in the morning. Any combos that make it on the menu are worthy of reward!

We’ll keep you all posted on the progress…Cheers

Simon

Where has the past week gone?

Suddenly the doors are open and what do you know, we have regulars already! It’s been great to see so many familiar faces pop in so soon, the support is very much appreciated.

We have a fabulous team of staff, truly rare to find such a passionate and committed team. Openings are never easy, the best laid plans… We have approached EARL slightly differently to a traditional food and beverage operation. We wanted passionate food people not necessarily chefs and wait staff. Each needs to understand the demands of the other, after all we think we might get rather busy. So if your waiter one day is peeling quince or slicing your pork belly the other, don’t be alarmed, it’s meant to be that way.

You can read about our food philosophy on other pages of this website, however something we haven’t spoken much about is our packaging. Given we are predominately a take-away food business we want to be able to offer value in our menu whilst still offering functional and stylish packaging. We have found two suppliers who fit the brief perfectly Think Eco and Bio Pak. Both produce the compostable and biodegradable packaging we love – that 3 compartment lunch box…perfect!

Look forward to seeing you soon

Simon