✦ Owners Beth and Leigh Torrisi couldn’t be prouder of themselves and their “Classy Team” for taking out the “Excellence in Accommodation and Hospitality” award, something they never expected.
The team's consistent hard work and conscientious efforts in creating a comfortable and inviting atmosphere for their customers, visitors to the town and the community of Wauchope was given the thumbs up by voters in the Wauchope & Hinterland Business Awards.
“Thank you to everyone that continuously supports our vision, our dream and our beautiful cafe,” Beth said. “We are so honoured and excited to win this award.”
A Classy Cafe & Espresso Bar is one of the longest standing cafes in Wauchope, first established in 1990, and operates from one of Wauchope’s beautiful historical buildings on Cameron Street.
Beth and Leigh purchased the cafe in January 2021 and have since shared with the community their passion for fresh quality food and coffee. They aim to inspire and create connections through providing great tasting coffee and food, delivering outstanding and reliable service in an inviting atmosphere, all the while ensuring customers feel welcomed and valued.
The cafe was recently voted as having the “Best Coffee on the Mid North Coast” via a Triple M Mid North Coast radio poll.
A Classy Cafe & Espresso Bar serves the people’s choice of their silky smooth, fresh brewed coffee blend daily and pairs it with their homestyle cooking and home made sweet and savoury treats.
Old school recipes and current trends
By getting back to the basics and recreating recipes that grandma used to make, the cafe has branded themselves as the place to go for fresh, home made, home style food. You will be left reminiscing about a simpler time.
In an ever changing world, so too does A Classy Cafe, intertwining their old school recipes with current seasonal trends within the industry. By continuously creating new flavours and food styles a point of difference and competitive edge has emerged.
Supporting their community in many ways
A Classy Cafe ́ and Espresso Bar use a pay it forward system that allows customers to choose what they are paying forward or how much, which is added to the pay it forward card. Their pay it forward system goes to nurses, doctors, police, SES, fire brigade, community workers or someone who is genuinely in need to brighten their day.
“Our pay it forward system has been promoted by word of mouth and has become very popular and an amazing way for our community to care for each other in hard times," Beth explained.
They actively support their community by taking up opportunities to be a part of like the Wauchope Lasiandra Festival, Culinary Canvas Dinner, Wauchope Rotary’s charity event Dinner in the dark, private functions, bookings and catering for various community outlets and local businesses.
Along with sponsorships for the NAIDOC Week award ceremony, various charity and sporting donations and vouchers, the team love hosting morning tea for the wonderful volunteer staff at Lifeline and other large community groups.
All ages are catered for, with work placement opportunities for local high school students offered regularly and on a daily basis elderly customers are cared for.
“Some of these customers do not have family in the area. We like to think we provide a safe, warm and friendly environment for our elderly patrons. Leigh will honestly go out of his way to help anyone in need,” Beth said proudly.
A Classy Café also provides a delivery service for local businesses in the Wauchope CBD allowing them the chance to continuously form relationships with their business neighbours which has led to successful business collaboration with promotions and giveaways on and offline.
Staff are family
Health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace is promoted by encouraging a work family ethic. Being family owned and operated, all employees are a part of the “Classy Family”.
“Our staff tip jar is used for staff outings and get-togethers. Our end of year Christmas party is something all staff look forward to. We are one happy work family,“ Beth told us.
Having a couple of staff members that suffer from minor mental health issues, minimising triggers and allowing regular days off or flexibility in the workplace allow these staff members to overcome some of these issues without interfering with their day to day work life.
The Classy family are a team. They all look out for and put measures in place to reduce the risk of injury in the workplace such as ensuring spillages are cleaned up quickly, use correct labelling for products, and keep up to date with industry food health and safety regulations.
“We encourage all staff to come and see us if they are having an off day so we can understand and put individual measures in place to reduce the impact of one person's bad day affecting business procedures," said Beth. "As employers we understand our employees' jobs are not always easy, sometimes it is a high pressure and a stressful environment and if it gets too much, our staff are allowed to take time out. Ensuring our employees are well hydrated, well rested and well looked after is imperative to the success of our business," she added.
Continuing business growth
Always in the business plan, operating 7 days a week has come to fruition with the addition of 5 new employees joining the Classy family. Now open for Sunday morning breakfast, a record day was achieved, 100% capacity from open to close on Mother’s Day this year.
“We have had to adapt and to respond to some challenging trading conditions such as the never ending rise in cost across all sectors of the business including wages, rent, electricity, suppliers, fuel cost and surcharges, cleaning, not to mention food shortages," Beth said.
Consistently planning, preparing and adapting to these conditions by using solutions like growing their own produce in the back garden, along with sourcing fresh produce from local farmers, planning weekly specials and creating a seasonal menu allows the cafe to continue to provide fresh products while remaining sustainable into the future.
The venue has seen substantial growth within the digital space. Orders have increased through their website but most predominantly through their new app which was implemented throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure easy, fast, safe and efficient service for their customers.
Growth in the digital space has been achieved by increased online visibility, improving the cafe's user engagement and expanding their customer base via social media platforms Facebook and Instagram along with other digital marketing platforms. In return they have seen an increase in production and turnover over the last 12 months.
A Classy Cafe & Espresso Bar pride themselves in providing exceptional service, specialty blended and roasted coffee beans along with a delicious selection of house made fresh bakes and homestyle cooking the entire family will enjoy! DINE IN OR TAKEAWAY.
Get their new ordering app here.
Contact
A Classy Cafe & Espresso Bar
70 Cameron Street, WAUCHOPE
Ph: 65 56 0593
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