Who is Andrew?

I was born in Sydney, and grew up back and forth between there and Canberra before I went to Greece for my National Service. After living there for a few years I returned to Australia when my dad fell ill, settling in Melbourne, and have been here for close to 30 years.

I’ve been in hospitality most of my life, firstly on St Kilda Rd where my dad had a business, from there to Brunswick St, Fitzroy for several years, then to Bridge Rd, Richmond where I started the fine dining restaurant Cafe Bar Centrale. At that stage, I found I needed a break, so I sold the restaurant and took a year off of work.

I had just purchased an apartment in Rocklands Regency on Exhibition St when the sales agent suggested I look at a podium apartment in Tower 1 in Yarra’s Edge. I fell in love with the place, it was beautiful and had water views from pretty much every window. Long story short, I managed to sell the Rocklands Regency apartment in a quick settlement and bought here in Docklands.

I loved this area so much after the year or so that I moved in here, I was walking around the area thinking of the possibilities that the place held and noticed a vacant space that looked perfect for a cafe. I put an application in and was contacted by Mirvac, asking me to write a bit of a blurb about myself and the establishments I’d had before. Eventually my application was accepted and the space was mine.

It still gives me goosebumps to think about it. All the hard work I’ve put in throughout my life just sort of paid off that day, you know. I've worked hard for what I have, and it felt like a reward. I bought the 18 Pence Lane site in 2002 - 2003 and purchased downstairs at Tower 5 about a year and a half later.

It was around that time that people started moving into Yarra’s Edge and the community started to grow quite quickly. The community has become so great, people tend to stay longer now than they did when the area was newly established and feel a deeper sense of connection to each other.

Around 12 years ago, I sold the businesses while keeping the freeholds, and moved to the suburbs. Three and a half years ago I felt like I had to come back. I’ve moved around a lot, even travelled around Australia twice by motorcycle, and there’s nothing like Melbourne, nothing like Docklands. It's the only place I’ve really settled.

I'm trying to get my parents to get a place here as well, so we can be closer to each other.

It's the community. When I came back a few years ago after living in the suburbs, that first night back I went to bed and felt like I was back home.

When I first opened 18 Pence Lane, I’d start at 5.30-6am opening the place up and getting ready for the early customers. Then while I was retired. When the kids finished school and started uni I started doing a lot of travelling around Australia, and did a little bit of overseas travel as well. Then COVID hit and this the shop was empty, and I couldn't lease the space so I decided to clean it up and so I decided to get it up and running again, thinking that i could get someone in here. While I was doing that, my son approached me with the idea of opening a sandwich bar. He was unhappy with his job at the time and was looking for a change, and the idea seemed good to me. About a month before opening, though, his work got better and he decided to stay, soI went ahead and reopened 18 Pence Lane as a sandwich and coffee bar.

A lot of the old customers were still around, t. They remembered me and started dropping in to say hi, and brought bringing a lot of new people with them. I feel blessed, the community just opened their arms and took me in a beautiful way.

At the end of the day we all work for money, but I'm at the age now where I'm happy

just to get by and make sure my staff and everybody gets paid. It's nice to make a little bit of a living, but for me it’s much more fun when it’s about the community. If there’s anything that comes up in the area or if someone comes to me with an idea, if it’s community spirited I’m there for it. We open the place so that community groups can hold meetings here. We give local artists a space to display their works and hopefully sell some. I don’t take a commission from that, it’s not about the money, it’s about supporting the community and supporting people to do something they’re passionate about.

When I get down here at 5:30am to open the shop, you can get a coffee, even though we're technically open at 7:00am. I'm not going to get rich off $5 for a morning coffee, but that’s not what’s important to me. It’s about relationships.

At the end of the day, we all work for money, but I'm at the age now where I'm happy just to get by and make sure my staff and everybody gets paid. It's nice to make a little bit of a living, but for me it’s much more fun when it’s about the community. If there’s anything that comes up in the area or if someone comes to me with an idea, if as long as it’s community-spirit I’m there for it.

We open the place so that community groups can hold meetings here. We give local artists a space to display their works and hopefully sell some. I don’t take a commission from that, it’s not about the money, it’s about supporting the community and supporting people to do something they’re passionate about.

When I get down here at 5:30am to open the shop, you can get a coffee, even though we're technically open at 7:00am. I'm not going to get rich off $5 for a morning coffee, but That is not what’s important to me. It’s about relationships.

People here, they’re are more than just my customers. They’re my friends. Most Thursday nights you’ll see me in restaurants with a different customer.

Hospitality means more than just being the person people come to for a coffee or for lunch. You’re a connection for a lot of people, a confidant, someone who will listen to them, that they can bounce their ideas off of and come to for advice. I’ve had customers come to me and comment that I give a lot, but if you ask me, I get a lot back, too. I get a lot of satisfaction from being able to help someone. It makes me feel good.

It's the community. I'll put it this way, coming back here to Docklands and opening 18 Pence Lane up again, the original idea was that originally I was going to get someone to take it over. Two years in, I haven’t even spoken to a real estate agent.

I'm just enjoying this whole thing, watching the community grow, meeting new people coming to the area, and the whole sense of everyone being together and helping each other here.

What else am I going to do? The only thing that I miss is jumping on my bike and going on long road trips.

I’d like Docklands to grow safely and slowly. I don't want wouldn’t like to see it to be rushed where they throw in a bucket load of money and a scenario of ‘build for the sake of building’, and where things grow too fast without considering the infrastructure that’s needed to keep pace with that growth. I think it would dilute the beauty of the area to grow too much too fast too. You need to be careful not to ruin it, take care and acknowledge the very reason that people want to move into live in the area in the first place.