Second Mr. Summit hitting its stride

After six months the second branch of popular Southbank business Mr. Summit is starting to hit its stride, with a broad customer base getting to know the café’s classic toasties, good coffee and warm, friendly culture.

Co-owners Gilbert Jonathan and Kasumi Oikaze both got their start in hospitality at Mr. Summit in City Rd, where they got jobs as students and learned a lot from founders Tony Rouillon, Daniel Emerton and Jordan Setiawan.

After being offered a stake in the second café, the dedicated workers – who hail from Indonesia and Japan, respectively – got on board with the project, and they have been running the new venue since it opened, after a long and challenging setup, on February 21.

“For Gilbert and Kasumi, it is the first experience of entrepreneurship and becoming their own bosses, and what they have to offer is really, really great,” Tony Rouillon told Southbank News.

According to Kasumi, the City Rd apprenticeship taught them important principles about the people side of the business.

“We wanted to do exactly the same things [here] to make customers smile or to give connection and community,” she said.

These can include things like a challenge to “make the barista laugh” in exchange for a free coffee.

In appearance, Mr. Summit Fawkner is somewhat different from its City Rd counterpart – with its fit-out incorporating more concrete and wood to maintain a backstreet, industrial feel.

The menu, though, is very similar.

“We kept our offer the same because it does appeal to a very wide range of people,” Tony said.

Beautifully made toasted sandwiches with classic ingredients, gluten-free bread options and changing “limited-edition” fillings like tikka masala, beef chimichurri and cheesy garlic, are the main menu item, with pastries also available.

On the drinks menu, alongside a range of specialty espresso and brewed coffees and hot and iced matchas, sit signature drinks the “snow cap” – a cold brew topped with cream - and the “coco cloud” – a coconut water topped with dulce de leche (caramel) coffee cream.

A very affordable toastie-and-drink deal has seen the café experience a regular lunchtime rush.

Its clientele, according to Tony, includes “basically everyone”, from elderly residents, students, office and construction workers to dancers from the ballet school down the street.

A lot of customers come also from the original store, with some choosing to have their morning coffee in the City Rd shop and their afternoon one in Fawkner St.

“They know Gillie and Kazumi from the previous store, and they know us also for a long time so they want to see everyone,” the Frenchman said.

A run club initiative organised with local gym Conditn has also drawn people to the new backstreet café, with 30 to 40 runners turning out on Saturday mornings for a five-kilometre jog to the Botanical Gardens, round the track and back.

As with the shop’s spacious seating area, where people are welcome to linger over reading material or laptops, the managers see the run club as creating a space for people to connect in.

The business has an impressive social media presence, with owners and staff featuring in regular, well-produced funny videos but it is a form of advertising that only goes so far, Tony believes.

“At the end of the day, our best marketing will always be the word-of-mouth spread,” he said.

“And this takes a little bit of time.”

Meanwhile the founding trio are engaged in a new mission, with a third Mr. Summit taking shape at Uluwatu in Bali and set to launch sometime before the end of the year.

“Jordan wanted to go back to his home country and we thought, ‘what should we do?’” Tony explained.

“And obviously we wanted to stick together.”

“We all come from different backgrounds, different countries and so living this adventure together is good and we’re just thinking, you know, anything can happen at any time for anybody.”

fawknerstreet.order.mrsummit.com.au •