PICS: SAMMY JONES PHOTOGRAPHY
On any given lunch hour in Hobart, there is a good chance someone is walking down a laneway clutching a Happy Larry sandwich and trying not to wear half of it home. What began as a simple idea built around good bread, quality ingredients and a hidden-away vibe has quickly become one of Tasmania’s most recognisable café success stories, and now it is growing again.. W hen Happy Larry opened its second store in Kingston last month, it was not just another café expansion story. For co-owner Varun Khetarpal, it was a sign of confidence – in the brand, in the growing southern suburbs community, and in the idea that even in a difficult hospitality climate, good concepts still cut through. “Kingston we’ve been seeing as a growing community for a while, and we thought it was the right time to be able to expand there as well,” Varun says of opening his second store. “Especially with what’s going on in the state and in that region, it was the right time to be able to do it.”
recreate the atmosphere that made the original Hobart CBD store such a hit. But unlike the first site, which tucked itself away from the bustle of the main strip, Kingston offered something different – a completely blank canvas. “It’s an extension of the CBD store, but because we are making it from scratch, the space was an empty shell, so we’ve been able to design and style how we want and we’ve got our special things that are going in there,” he says. That original CBD store is still not yet two years old, but it has already become one of the city’s most talked-about food venues. The queues, the reels, the sandwiches that require both hands and possibly a strategy meeting, all of it has helped build a fiercely loyal customer base. Varun says the response has exceeded anything he expected. “We absolutely are blown away,” he says. “The shop started as a love for sandwiches. I used to work in the city and thought there was a bit of a gap, so thought why not try and make something of our own, and it’s just blown up.”
The new venue gives Happy Larry the chance to
9
Tasmanian Hospitality Review June/July Edition
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator