The hardest part of any business is running a team of staff smoothly and efficiently, especially in hospitality. I have always been incredibly lucky with our team members, folks that have committed their time, sweat and tears to help me to get the café to where it is today. Nothing makes me happier or more proud than when I look out of the pass and it’s crazy busy, but the team are happy with everything running 100%.
A huge thanks to all our team, past and present. Special kitchen wall of fame mention goes out to John Coghill for helping me see potential in myself and others; Tony Cumming for banter, banter and more banter; Adam Anderson for his karaoke clean downs and the best fish cakes on the planet; Agata Galicka for systems, systems, systems and for being my right hand lady and good friend for six years; Kevin Riddoch for being a big vegan hippy chef with awesome baking and mountain biking skills; Laura Cantwell for being a total grafter who keeps me sane when the going gets tough and Sam Hawkins for his all-day-breakfast stacking challenges and being our kitchen version of Tigger. Front of house, I have to give a shout out to Claire Smith, our fantastic manager who runs front of house, 12 staff and a family of five – she is an absolute legend and lifesaver; Emily Haggerty who started as a dishwasher when she was 13 and stayed with us for seven years to become the best barista we have ever had; Rachel Williams for her procedures, organisation and signs; Keely Foley, my front of house guru and rock in the early days who totally got what I was trying to do; Belinda Althaus, a wee Aussie rocket who had more enthusiasm and energy than the whole team put together; Fiona Quire who is just a completely mental local lassie who will always be part of the MC family; Sue Williams, my first ever employee, so friendly, great with customers and a true friend who also tested a lot of the recipes in the book; Elizabeth Pirie (Squizz), our wee in-house artist and clean freak who was obsessed with cleaning the cake fridge and keeping everything tidy and who did the awesome illustrations for this book; Kate Streib, a lovely Canadian lass and environment freak who helped set up all our environmental policies; Marius Swart, a South African bloke who was a hard worker and party animal with incredible banter – he made me laugh every day; and finally Courtney Saunders, a sweet little South African girl who was everything you could ask for in a server – she was so kind to customers and nothing was ever an issue.
