Keeping the customers happy is what Jessica Doyle says Crumpet is all about. Carolyn Herbert reports.
THE saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is one Crumpet founder Jessica Doyle swears by.
After working as a barista for six years, the 21 year old decided to branch out and set up her own business.
“While I loved making coffee, food has always been my number one passion and I always wanted to work for myself and not for anyone else,” Ms Doyle told Gusto.
Putting her dream into practice, she bought what was originally a small lunch bar on the bustling East Victoria Park cafe strip, and transformed it into Crumpet – an all-day gourmet breakfast cafe.
While it was originally intended to be a joint venture with her mother, a change of plans led Ms Doyle to buy the business by herself.
“We ended up deciding that I was going to buy the business alone, but my mum was very supportive of me through the whole process,” she says.
Ms Doyle says she saw the East Vic Park strip as a great opportunity to develop a business.
“The Vic Park coffee strip is only getting more and more popular, but I wanted to do something different from the other places,” she says.
While Crumpet was primarily designed to be a breakfast cafe, to broaden her customer base Ms Doyle decided to provide packed lunches for the locals.
“I initially wanted to do cheap lunch box style lunches for business people but it didn’t really take off,” she says.
“But seeing as breakfast was hugely popular, I decided that it would be a better decision to focus purely on breakfast.”
Miss Doyle says she saw a gap in the market for an all-day breakfast cafe considering many other cafes in the area only offered breakfast on weekends, or closed early on Saturday and Sunday.
“Many places stop serving breakfast at around 10.30, so I could see that there was a demand to have a later breakfast,” she says.
Her love for the ‘simplicity of breakfast’ was the other reason for her choice of business.
“Eggs are one of my favourite foods and I have always loved to cook with them. I’m all about letting the produce shine and with breakfast you can really do that,” Ms Doyle says.
As well as managing the business by herself, Miss Doyle is responsible for sourcing the produce, creating the menu and cooking the food.
However, Miss Doyle says acting as both the chef and business manager comes at a price.
“Even with around three or four permanent staff, I work between 50 and 85 hours a week,” she says.
“I’m a people person and I miss interacting with customers because I’m often in the kitchen.”
She told Gusto that a focus on top quality local ingredients and a unique menu was paramount to the success of her business.
“I want to use as many free range and local ingredients as possible,” she says.
“But this is not just your basic ‘bacon and eggs’ place. We explore unique concepts like a Middle Eastern breakfast, baked French toast, and home-made crumpets.”
Her special recipe for crumpets has become the signature dish at Crumpet.
“These are nothing like the shop-bought crumpets with little holes in them. Most people will order breakfast then order a serve of crumpets to share; it’s like garlic bread to an Italian restaurant,” she says.
After being open for 13 months, Ms Doyle feels she can hand over some of the responsibility for running the business.
“This place is like my baby but I am looking for someone to help me out, particularly with the cooking, so I can focus on making coffee again and chat with customers more,” she says.
While she plans to expand the Crumpet brand in the future, Miss Doyle says her focus is on maintaining quality and keeping her customers happy.
And for anyone who wants to start their own business she gives the following advice.
“Just go for it, just jump straight in there and do it. When it comes to business, you’ve got to take a risk.”
