Early Bird Café Feels like Home

Wendy and Dale Pope at Early Bird Cafe's new home in Dean Street. Photo: TruPics

Walk north out of City Walk, turn left into Dean Street and down to the T & G building, and you’ll find the recently relocated Early Bird Café.

When moving their café to a larger premises, proprietors, Dale and Wendy Pope made it a priority to keep the ‘Early Bird’ atmosphere.

“While the seating area is larger, we’ve kept the same number of seats and the clear view into the kitchen, and that sense people had of coming into their own kitchen when they come in,” Dale said.

Reinforcing the warm and homey feel is the use of Ash timber throughout and the inclusion of a bench seat from Boort Secondary School complete with wire rack underneath.

“We’ve used all local businesses in the refit and kept my son Shaq busy with painting the walls and scrubbing back the floor.”

The move has also enabled the couple to move their chutney and jam making which usually happens on Wednesdays when the café is closed out of home and into the more spacious kitchen.

“Our Adele and Dale range evolved from Wendy making jams and chutneys for other outlets but we’ve been working on going into markets and wholesale line with all of our products.

“Wendy grew up on a farm in the Chiltern Forest between Chiltern and Rutherglen living with her parents and her grandparents and having great access to fresh ingredients. She moved away and studied hospitality, worked in Melbourne then returned to the area and opened Early Bird which will celebrate its 10th birthday in July.”

“Now we source a lot of our ingredients from customers and friends and even fruit we harvest from the side of the road,” Dale said.

For more information: Early Bird Café, 1/553 Dean Street, Albury https://www.facebook.com/EarlyBirdCafe/