Every community needs places where people from all walks of life are welcome and comfortable to enjoy conversation, creativity and connection.
Adam Murphy and his team have created Goodfolk Cafe in Bardon with a strong commitment to delivering quality, local food, and embracing sustainability and inclusion.
“A cafe should be like the fireplace of a community or a home away from home where people can gather, share and contribute. So, I get a lot of satisfaction from doing that,” Adam said.
Creating a point of difference and pride
Adam said that he focuses on 2 things to create the type of business where everyone is welcome to turn up as often as they like in whatever way they feel comfortable. The first is delivering quality, local food that Goodfolk make in-house as much as possible.
“Everything from our pickles, our jams, chai syrup, chocolate powder, cakes and relishes are all made in-house. It is a point of pride and a point of difference. We only make food that we know tastes good and is good quality.”
“We triple taste test everything and do staff events where we taste the food blind to make sure that the quality is there and the flavour transfers through.”
He says the second element is staffing.
“Making sure that you have staff that can deliver a great service is important but 90% of the recipe lies with me to create a workplace community where staff are shown appreciation, encouragement and are respected.
“Then they enjoy turning up to work and when they give that excellent service to customers, it is genuine, and they mean it.
Responsibility for the big picture
Sustainability also plays an important part in the Goodfolk mix.
“We’re lucky to have a large, beautiful garden at Goodfolk, and so we’ve inherited the stewardship of gardening and reflect on those practices and take responsibility for the big picture. It starts with composting and worm farming to circular recycling and making sure that we’re not sending too much to landfill.”
As well as providing fresh, local produce, the garden has also become a focus for building community with children invited over the school holidays to come along and plant seedlings in the garden.
Council's 24-hour business helpline
Adam said that he has made great use of Brisbane City Council’s 24-hour Business Hotline on 133 BNE (133 263).
“We’ve found the Council hotline to be really useful with a variety of issues from contacting environmental health officers to zoning issues or parking issues. It’s a really helpful point of contact if we’re having issues with a whole range of things.”
Brisbane business support
From getting the right permits, through to data that helps you research a new business venture and our 24/7 Business Hotline, Council is committed to supporting Brisbane businesses. Visit Doing Business in Brisbane.