Plenty More to Come

Graceville’s Plentiful Café is striving towards a bright future despite the Covid-19 regulations which jeopardised their opening in March.

Informally known as Graceville’s newest brunch hotspot, Plentiful opened their doors on March 13th only to close 10 days later for approximately two weeks to prioritise the health of staff and customers.

As per government regulations, Plentiful is now serving takeaway and offering dine-in meals through an online booking system.

Owner Kiara Naidoo, 23, said that she and her partner, George de Bhál, had the café in the works for over a year and decided to open for a number of reasons.

Kiara Naidoo and George de Bhál

“I was aware of the situation and I questioned whether we should open, but I have so many staff relying on shifts and we were so excited, so we wanted to give it a go,” Kiara said.

“We struggled with Covid restrictions coming a week in because we worked really hard on the space and wanted it to be an enjoyable experience to dine in, but it’s hard to bring that vibe to takeaway.

“The first week we were fortunate because we had that new business buzz. It was really nice, family and friends came out to support us,” Kiara said.

The decision to close Plentiful for the unforeseeable future was a scary one, but in hindsight Kiara says it’s given them a unique opportunity to adapt.

“It was pretty awful, I’m not gonna lie. I don’t think I got out of bed for a good week just because I was constantly wondering whether we’d done the right thing,” Kiara said.

“We used that time to plan the Covid takeaway menus so that it was a little cheaper and more takeaway friendly. We managed to alter stock levels so that we weren’t wasting much.

“I made sure the staff were set up as much as possible,” she said.

Chef Jongil Choi and wife

Re-opening but having slower days allowed the Plentiful team to establish their skills and brainstorm innovative ways to drive consumers.

“It’s really good for us because we got to learn the way we’re operating things, the things we need to fix, the things we could do better, and we got to know the product we were using” Kiara said.

“And then we had to think of new ways to engage with people. Because we are so new, we have no data to base anything off and we don’t know what people like from us. Basically, we had to be a bit innovative.”

As of Saturday, 16th May the Queensland Government roadmap allowed cafes to seat 10 customers at a time.

“It was exciting, but it was also a bit scary because we had just gotten into the swing of doing takeaways,” she said.

“George put the booking system together within ten minutes and we let people know through our social media as best as we could,” Kiara said.

Having confidently ploughed through what will, hopefully, be the worst of Corona Virus, Kiara and George have big dreams to stand out from the café crowd in the future.

“Something I really wanted to do from the start is get licensed so we can do group events, boozy brunches and pop-up dinners,” Kiara said.

“We want to start doing picnics and some events eventually. The space is really nice if someone wants to book it out for the evening.”

Opening in an already-competitive location during such economically challenging times was a bold move that confirmed Plentiful Café is here to stay.

To enjoy delicious food and coffee, visit Plentiful Café at 2/7 Park Terrace, Graceville and follow them on Instagram @plentiful.cafe

To book a dine-in slot, visit their website https://www.plentiful.cafe/