A Kelmscott café has stepped up to represent Perth’s Southeastern suburbs after being nominated for a prestigious Gold Plate Award.
Named as a finalist in both the best coffee and best breakfast categories, That Plant Café in Kelmscott is no stranger to good food and service after being named as a finalist last year for their fine dining dinner service.
Café owner Ben Cross said he began the café approximately five years ago selling mostly plants with a side of coffee.
“It just evolved en masse,” he said.
“I think I only had about 15 seats in the last café, and it just grew so we had to move.
“It just happened overnight.”
Mr Cross said the Gold Plate Award finalist recognition was the result of the efforts of the whole café, which is nestled near the Stargate Shopping Centre.
“The guys have done so well to where they have and to see the growth from the old location to here is massive,” he said.
“Kelmscott is what you make it and there are nice parts of this area. We’re probably one of the biggest cafes in the area and it’s been going well.”
Executive chef Rob Nixon said the Gold Plate Awards are a statewide recognition, “akin to a Michelin star”.
“There’s thousands of restaurants in Perth, and then that goes down to a finalist level which is where we are now,” he said.
“It’s basically for any category and it’s for excellence in what you do.
“We’re the only ones down in this area competing for a top spot, all the rest are in very leafy suburbs or they’re overlooking the beach so taking it up against those places is a pretty big challenge.”
Mr Nixon joined That Plant Café, 18 months ago after he had experienced running his own successful, local food venues.
He said to be eligible for a Gold Plate, an anonymous food critic visits the venue and then puts forward the café or restaurant in the relevant category.
“These are pro critics,” Mr Nixon said.
“They will come in with 100-point criteria and we never know when they’re coming in. It’s completely anonymous.
“We’ll never know who they are, and they can come in once, they can come in multiple times.”
To be ready for critics and to foster a positive atmosphere for their customers, Mr Nixon said That Plant Café pride themselves on high quality service.
“We try and treat every table as if we’re being judged because we are,” he said.
“Someone comes in anonymously under the guise of the Gold Plate Awards means we’ve got to be on our toes all the time.
“That’s the culture we try and embed here, which I think many places has given up on that.
“What we’re concerned about is giving customers the best experience and the best products because then they’ll keep coming back.”
Mr Nixon said the change from fine dining to breakfast was tricky because it’s hard to master a breakfast menu.
“It’s very easy to get fine dining right because you can use the best cuts of meat and other things like that, but you go to a café and a big breakfast sort of tastes the same everywhere,” he said.
“We source local ingredients as I’m very big on supporting local industry, and I think people can tell the difference.
“A customer can now discern whether something’s frozen or fresh, or made in house or bought in so I think that’s our point of difference.”
Mr Nixon said he wanted to put Kelmscott on the map for a food destination.
“We employ local, and our team were really, really, really happy about the nomination and they should be,” he said.
“Why shouldn’t people who live in Roleystone or Clifton Hills or Armadale have somewhere nice to go to?”
The winners for each category will be announced in October.
