'I think he'd been here for, like, 80 years. But don't quote me on that. A long time.'
It's just after 3pm when Kate Pedley is free to chat about her café, named for the owner of the decades-old salon that once occupied the same address on George Street.
'Alberto was a hairdresser here. We just kept the name. Everyone knew where it was.' And besides, she says, 'coffee rolls with it.'
While she may be a slight 26 years off – an 80-something Mr Alberto Santamaria serviced the Launceston community for an astounding 54 years – the Alberto’s shopfront is undoubtedly an icon of the city. Today, the quaint, vintage space has taken on a new life as home to the bustling and vibrant coffee house that Kate and her sister Anna opened close to a decade ago.
‘I'm proud we've been open nearly eight years. Someone said to me the other day that it's amazing to be open that long,’ she laughs. ‘We've got a really happy environment here. Everyone likes coming to work; all our customers are legends. It gives Anna and me a bit of purpose.’
The team is a tight-knit four-piece.
‘Our girls [on the team] are wonderful. We have such a great relationship with everyone here. We’re very fair. At the end of the day, I want the girls to come to work happy. We all have our days. You don’t know everyone’s story, so just be kind. Ask them how their day’s going.’
That’s an attitude that extends to all kinds of interactions.
A huge majority of Alberto’s customers are workers in the city, who come for their morning coffee or pop in around noontime for lunch. As such, Albert’s has built a strong reputation – the coffee is reliably as sublime and swift as the service itself, and the small space is almost always teeming with smiling people, many of whom are regulars.
‘People want fast. We get a lot of businesspeople; they don’t have an hour for lunch. They just wanted a friendly face, good coffee, affordable food, and [to] get back to their office.’
With four children between them, Kate says the decision to open a city café was driven by the sisters’ family and lifestyle goals.
‘I've got two kids. Being a mum is a purpose, but also working – I need that for myself.’
‘We wanted to do something together that suited our lifestyle,’ she explains. ‘We just wanted to work Monday to Friday. Something small; we wanted to employ a couple of people.’
And the model they’ve created seems to be working well for everyone involved.
‘From 6.30am ‘til 2.30pm everyone works hard,’ she says. ‘Everyone gets the weekend off. Everyone comes back happy on Monday morning.’
It’s evident that for Kate and Anna, there’s more to work than just a means to an end. For that sense of fulfilment and purpose to be realised, it’s necessary to be intentional with lifestyle. It wasn’t always in Kate’s sights to open a café, but it’s evident that she’s the type to be intentional about the line of work she chooses for herself. That trajectory has allowed her to get clear on her values, informing who she is today as a businesswoman.
‘[Anna and I] have both been in hospitality for a fair few years. I did personal training for a while but didn't really enjoy it.’
Despite not pursuing the PT thing that preceded Alberto's, she keeps both movement and community morale up with a weekly running group that embraces anywhere from 20 to 50 people. The group meets bright and early at Alberto's.
‘Some people walk, some bring their dogs, some people push a pram, some people are fast. They come and have a coffee after and feel a million bucks – like I do – for the rest of the day.’
It’s helped her become a better person, she says, to keep these various senses of purpose – motherhood, business ownership, running club – each fuelling her in their own way, and oftentimes overlapping.
Like on Sundays when her daughter, Peggy, comes into the café to help.
‘She's, like, four. She'll come in here, help me clean. She's just so good. I'm like, “If you want your 'ccino, this is what you gotta do!” And she never complains. Never complains; she's so good.’
When it comes to starting a business, Kate’s advice is to just 'have a go.' She walks the talk.
Part of 'having a go' is being OK with the business taking on its own form, allowing for flow. Naturally, what Alberto's looks like today is a bit different to the initial ideation of the café. Kate says it's just part and parcel of tailoring your dreams to an environment with its own set of restrictions.
‘Looking back, if we'd done a lot of those things [that we wanted to at the start], we would have had to open weekends, whereas now with what we have and what we do, we cater for the people that are at work and want a quick lunch break. And we're affordable – that was the other thing. We wanted to be able to give people a coffee and lunch. I feel like a lot of people can come to us and not break the bank.’
‘When we started doing this, a lot of people were very sceptical of us going into business together being sisters, probably going through the same things at the same time, you know, wanting a family and those things. But to be honest with you, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Apart from having a family. Our relationship has grown so much. We’re so lucky to have each other. She probably wouldn’t be able to do it, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to do it without her. Now, someone will work, and someone will have the four kids.’
‘It’s perfect, really. And we bounce ideas off each other. You don’t have financial stress of just yourself. You talk about it, come up with a solution and fix it. Anna and I get on; I’m really, really lucky.’
For the sisters, leading by example is important and they are both every bit as involved in the front-of-house aspect of their café as their staff, coming in between four and five every morning.
‘I feel like it's important that Anna and I are involved. It shows your staff you care. We've got to set a good example for our staff. If you ask them to do something, you should do it yourself as well. We've not had a high turnover of staff.’
It's not lost on Kate that part of being a leader is demonstrating how to respond to less-than-ideal situations. ‘At the end of the day, we're making cappuccinos. If someone brings it back, just tip it down the sink and say, “No worries. I'll make you a new one.” It's not really a big deal; don't get crabby. And even if the customer is crabby, just move on, don't talk about them. Just move on, bite your tongue.’
Kindness and generosity of spirit are not just reserved for the ones who essentially help fund the business (the customers). No business, it’s probably been said, is an island. And to that adage, Alberto’s is no exception.
Kate is fastidious in her support for the hospitality community in the city. ‘Launceston's a small place. You want everyone to do well.’
After a while, Kate and Anna decided to close doors on Saturdays in addition to Sundays, creating a weekday-only work week. It not only allowed Kate and Anna to prioritise time with their families over the weekend but also to experience the community’s hospitality industry in more depth.
On top of that, it gave them a point of difference in being one of the few city venues that aren’t open on weekends.
‘When we stopped opening on Saturdays, we were always trying to go and support something else local. Launceston's a small place, and you want everyone to do well. So, I love it here. I love food, I love coffee. I love going for a drink. I'll try anything.’
Kate explains: ‘I want everyone to do well in Launceston. There are so many cafés and I didn't want to take anyone's business. We love Amelia's, we love Sweetbrew, we love everyone. When we decided to do it, to open Alberto's, we wanted to do something different.’
As two people who are mindful about the food they feed their families and themselves, Kate and Anna are selective about Alberto's' offering. Conscientious, they opt to source locally. Food is prepared in the café’s small kitchen, with each bite generously packed with produce from the likes of Young’s Vegie Shed and Green Grocer on Charles. ‘It’s always fresh. Good service,’ Kate says of both suppliers.
Upon entering the café, your eyes might be drawn to the enticing range of sweets in the cabinet, all of which are made by the team in-house. Bagels, wraps, salads, and savoury croissants (croissants supplied by artisanal bakery Bread + Butter) are among the rainbow array one can choose from for an easy, satisfying lunch at Alberto's.
'Launceston's a small place. You want everyone to do well.'
At the time of writing, Alberto’s is the only café in Launceston serving Allpress espresso. ‘A lot of people have tried to make us change, to support a local business.’
It was a thoughtful choice to steer from local roasteries – around Launceston city, most venues use the beans from one of about four well-known Tasmanian coffee roasters. So, when Kate and Anna discovered Allpress’ beans in Melbourne, the decision was simple.
‘They have been such an amazing company to deal with. Their service ...’ – she gesticulates approvingly, smiling – ‘we're so happy. They ask us if they can help us out in any way they can. We can't fault them. And no one else does [Allpress] here. Not everyone’s going to like our coffee, and that’s fine.’
Besides, Kate and Anna do their bit in supporting the local economy, particularly in the hospitality sector.
It’s clear to anyone who meets Kate that she’s deliberate in her choice to be kind and do her part, albeit unfussed and easy-going. It is people like her who embody the spirit of the Launceston – and wider Tasmanian – community.
‘Anna and I, I don’t think we’ve got any enemies. We run out of cups and I’m like, run up the street, ask if we can borrow some cups. It’s just a nice thing. We get on well with everyone in this area. Everyone’s just trying to do their best.’
Her final sentiments seem to capture her attitude beautifully.
‘I feel so grateful we can employ a couple of people. I’m all about, you know, just do your best and be kind. And support people that support you. That’s what makes people support local, where they can.’
And it’s undoubtedly this sentiment that has seen Alberto’s remain a popular pitstop for locals and visitors alike.
The old George Street building continues its legacy as home to an iconic local business.
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In good company is a series of interviews undertaken with local small business owners and their employees to help the public learn more about their favourite Launnie businesses, how they came to be and what drives them. They're usually posted to our social media first, and those posts will be linked at the end of the interview so that you can share them if you'd like to. So settle in and scroll on to hear tales from beyond the counter, and maybe even discover somewhere completely new ... Wherever these interviews lead you, we're sure you'll find yourself In good company.
- The Launceston Central team