Fresh traditions are being built by the owners of three Albury businesses – Greenstreat, Early Bird Café and Almar Organics. In the first of our foodie profiles, Robyne Young catches up with the team behind Greenstreat.
The seeds of Jesse and Jackson McGrath’s food business Greenstreat were sown many years ago in the factory of the family business, McGrath Fine Foods, owned by their parents Chew and Jan McGrath.
“We developed some dressings that were just too fresh and we started to think about the fresh setting that we might be able to use them in,” Jesse McGrath said.
“My brother Jackson and I had been overseas looking at the new trends, and Jackson had always been interested in healthy food.
“We both have a love for fast casual style food that can be redone every day and have more than once a week, and I think it just melded really well with the dressings and then we found a way to put them in people’s mouths.”
After a year of testing in the factory they felt they were ready to open the restaurant, and found the right space at the end of City Walk.
“We’d been keeping an eye on what was available and this area is really starting to move, and it’s turned out to be perfect. We’ve fitted it out so that customers can see everything that goes into what they order,” Jesse said.
“Because of the sheer volume we need, we’re sourcing most of our fruit and vegetables from Arnold’s Fruit Market at the moment, and meat from local butchers, but we will be pushing more and more to find local producers to start using their produce. There’s a lot of good producers towards Cobram and Yarrawonga and as we get a bit more time we’ll investigate and start sourcing from them,” Jackson adds.
Not only can customers see what’s available, but the smell of those ingredients hits the senses as soon as you walk in to the funkily decorated space, enticing customers to share images of what they’re eating with their friends.
“Social media has been huge. People come in and they like what they’re eating so they take a photo, post it on Instagram, all their friends see it, they repost it and then they come in and it starts again. The neon sign is also the perfect backdrop for photos,” Jackson said.
For more information: Greenstreat, Shop 19 City Walk Arcade, Dean Street Albury: https://www.facebook.com/greenstreatsalads/
