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A Chat with ‘79 & Fine’ Owners JJ Sadkowsky and Antony Arena

On the eve of the opening of their new venue ‘79 & Fine’, NowUC’s David Blackmore sat down with owners JJ Sadkowky and Antony Arena for a preview of their new café and a look at the Canberra hospitality scene.

Owners Antony Arena and JJ Sadkowsky
Owners Antony Arena and JJ Sadkowsky (Photo By David Blackmore)

David: Can you tell me about your new cafe 79 & Fine?

JJ: We wanted to create a space where people can come in and meet other people and actually hold a conversation.

We wanted to bring in traditional standard café where it wasn’t coffee focus, it wasn’t food focused, it was everything you’d want in a café but done properly.

Ant: We like producing business that deliver an experience.

We try to create something with a little bit of a theme or an idea so that it creates a sense of stickiness to the business for a customer’s point of view. They feel like whenever they walk in they’re not just going to get a great product, which you can get at other places, but also an overarching experience that encourages them to come back more often. That was a big focus here.

The fitout we’ve done is very Hamptons inspired. It’s warm, cosy, kind of coastal feel, very relaxed and hence that flows through to the name.

It should be fun; I think it will be well received.

David: Ant what have you found to be the biggest or most surprising difference between building, and the thought of managing, a café to the bars that you run – Molly and Highball Express?

Ant: I think there are some functional differences in terms of layout, never had kitchens before, so there are other things to consider but the overarching thought whenever I’ve thought about creating a business is about the consumer journey through the space and how they engage with it.

Once you wrap your head around that style of thinking it does become a lot easier to execute additional venues, even if they’re in slightly different veins like a café versus a bar.

If you really focus on your customer and what their experience is going to be like you can always execute pretty well.

David: What do you believe the catalyst to Canberra’s influx of cafes, bars and restaurants has been?

JJ: A massive hole in the market. There has been huge increases of cafes and bars and I would suggest that that has happened because previously there wasn’t anything.

The clientele has been here for years.

Ant: I think more broadly we used to be a public service town. If you go back twenty years, it was probably 80/20 public service to private enterprise. That figure has dramatically shifted. In fact, it is well over 50/50 the other way now.

You’ve got urban development in areas closer to the city so you get people out of the house a little bit more. So all of a sudden there is an audience and a demand for more venues.

At the same time, you’ve got an emerging generation that is very entrepreneurial naturally. They’ve grown up with Boomer parents who probably worked in the public service who have inspired them in some sense of what not to do and said “go and create your own destiny and live your dreams.” I think that is what we are seeing with a lot of young people opening businesses and having a go at some different things.

I think if you tie that in with a cultural shift in Canberra of people basically watching a city blossom or grow in front of their own eyes and wanting to be a part of that.

That has certainly been something for me personally. Seeing what is going on and wanting to be a part of it. I think a lot of people are on the same page.

Flexing the artistic muscles today. #latteartgram #latte #art #latteart #flatwhite #coffee #peacock #swan #tulip A day in the life of

A photo posted by JJ (@radkowsky_and_juggernaut) on

Latte Art On Display Courtesy of JJ Sadkowsky Instagram

David: Finally, where do you see Canberra’s hospitality scene going. Can it be as big and said in the same sentences as Melbourne or Sydney?

JJ: If you know where to go, I prefer Canberra over Melbourne because you can go from one place to the next good place pretty easily.

In the next five to ten years I can see that happening drastically so. Like Ant suggested, an entrepreneurial generation is occurring and more and more people are realising that if you do something well enough you are going to be appreciated for it.

Ant: I think there is going to be a bit of retraction, because the market will be flooded with options and the natural market economy will separate the weak from the top which should elevate the overall experience of dining or drinking.

I think in Canberra in particular with this oversupply that I think seems to be happening that over the next few years the quality is only going to get better and better and better. It should give us our own space in the national conversation.

I think we are already there for coffee, we’re certainly there for fine dining.

We might not have it as super fine as Sydney or as many casual options but we have got really good quality stuff through the range.

79 & Fine is scheduled to open mid-April, 1 Hobart Place Canberra City.

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