The name Abuelo is inspired by your Argentinian grandfather - why did you decide to name the venue after him?
My dad is Argentinian and his father Alberto was the one who taught me to cook traditional food like empanadas, I then started an empanada business in my early 20's selling them at markets and events all over Sydney. That business is really where the idea started and it developed into what we have now. In addition, my parents had restaurants in Sydney in the 80's called Zigolini's and Abuelo made all of the joinery for the design of the iconic Queen Street location (he was a carpenter) so the real carpentry focus of our fitouts links back to this. Abuelo also baked cakes for Zigolini's, he got the recipes from an old Woman's Weekly magazine and people loved them (even though he had never baked a cake before that!)... so he was an important presence of all of our history in the industry. We are also a family business so the name really highlights that.
What unique position do you think Abuelo holds in the London brunch scene?
We feel that we are trying to bring something unique to the scene in that we focus on the design of the space from an architectural perspective in combination with the presentation of the food and drinks, particularly with the new space we want it to feel cool and designed yet the food offering and service is casual, it's not stuffy and formal - it's a high/low thing. As designers the interiors are so important to us because we personally love finding a place where you can see someone really cares and really showcases their taste and eye with what they designed. Some customers might not get what we're doing because it is quite particular and I don't think it has many comparisons in London, but we just love putting forward what we want to see and what we like knowing that if we want/like it then someone else is looking for it too!
London coffee doesn't have the best reputation , how is Abuelo trying to change this?
We're part of the small but growing scene of london coffee venues where we are serving Speciality Coffee according to those strict standards and really trying to educate customers on not just what that means for the cup you get in your hand at the end but also for the bean growing process and why it is important to support ethical, sustainable farming practices that support the local communities where they are grown. We only source Latin American beans that are SCA (speciality coffee association) graded, ethically and sustainably grown and that the farmers are treated fairly, we hope that caring more about where your coffee comes from will be the change we see in London!
Why did you decide to fuse Argentinian and Australian cuisine? How do you see them working together well?
It is just a reflection of our heritage and we felt that the other Australian brunch places on the market didn't represent us exactly in terms of food style, Australia is a very multicultural place in our food and each Australian will have a different point of view on the cuisine depending on their background. We definitely see a lot of influence from Asia in our food usually, but we wanted to tell our particular story - so you get brunch food presented in a way that feels like what you would expect from an Aussie brunch place but we add a little twist here and there of South American flavours or ingredients. But really the combination is seen more in the coffee - it is Australian brewing techniques (in that Australia was the originator of what we consider modern speciality coffee brewing) but made with specifically latin american beans.
Lynette, how did your background as an architect help bring the vision of Abuelo to life?
I have been practicing as an architect for a long time and I've done probably almost 80 hospitality venues by now for clients, I've owned around 11 or 12 of them myself as well. I also do all other kinds of architecture but I love being able to create spaces that I actually get to see people use! When you do houses and things like that you design and build it and then walk away whereas with hospitality it is a living breathing thing that you can see people interact with and enjoy all the time, which is what I love! The main purpose of Abuelo is to showcase architecture through a cafe setting - that really is the vision. We hope we can continue to make more spaces that are all different.
How we work is Cloe and I work on the concept and design together, and then as an architect I develop that into the documentation and build, my husband also works with us on the construction. We build absolutely everything on site or in our workshop, all of the timber work, the counter, every inch of it actually is bespoke made and designed. Cloe and I travel to Amsterdam frequently to source vintage furniture so the only things that were made bespoke were the lights and chairs, most of which were brought back from the Netherlands. So a lot of work and care is put into it! The idea is that you come in and enjoy the space from a design perspective, it's something a little surprising for a cafe!
Cloe, what made you want to embark on this joint venture with your mum?
We just started speaking about restaurants a lot after I started my street food business and we were just constantly discussing good and bad everywhere we went, doing a lot of dinner parties as well and this naturally developed into us finding a concept that we kept returning to like 'if we did our own place this is what we'd do' and then one day we went... ok should we actually do it? My mum and I work creatively really easily together so it is just something that naturally happened, I didn't think about it! But also having a South American family it is very normal for everyone to have a very community minded or an 'in the family' approach to everything so my uncles and everyone always worked together, everyone always helped each other out... It was very normal for us!
What unique strengths do you bring as a mother/daughter team?
The difference in generation really helps because we both bring different perspectives on things, we also come from different professional backgrounds and different experiences which really helps. We compliment each other's skill sets basically, and we get each other which makes it very easy... we can practically read each other's minds at this point.
How have you tackled the challenges of the hospitality industry, particularly as an all-female team?
The hospitality industry right now is very difficult, there are pressures from every direction with the current state of things and for sure a lot of people are silently struggling really badly at the moment... We have mostly truly amazing customers and staff which really helps us to get through it, but at the same time there are more very difficult customers post-covid too and we feel like there is a real need for some compassion and understanding towards service staff and businesses from people at the moment, it's very difficult and perhaps customers are not really aware of treating people like people anymore!
In order to tackle it we basically just try and do our best, focus on improving every day, try our best to hire lovely people, and put out something that we love and stand behind and then ignore the rest... and that is really all you can do!
What do you like to do together when you're not working on the business?
We love going vintage shopping, particularly looking for vintage furniture so we go to a lot of markets. We love a gallery or any kind of design event haha.
