Beess & Co, the sleepy little café locate din the leafy suburbs of Yarralumla made headlines last weekend for more than one reason. One event put them on the front page of the Canberra Times.
On Wednesday, at 6.30am while the staff was setting up for the day’s trade, a man entered the café via the service entry and threatened the staff before making off with the cash in store.
Unfortunately (for the thief, anyway) 6.30am is not the busiest time of day for most cafes, and our local Fairfax masthead reports he only made off with just $80. No one was hurt, so the story ended better than it possibly could.
The sad part about all of this is it was actually the last day of trade for long-term owner of Beess & Co, Andrea Beess und Chrostin, Undoubtedly Andrea would have preferred a much more celebratory event to finish off almost ten years of operation. Fortunately, on Thursday there were better times ahead, as current and ex-staff, suppliers and a crowd of loyal customers gathered on a gorgeous winter’s day to see off Yarralumla’s hostess-with-the-mostest.
So, what now for Andrea? Well, we’ve heard word it’s to be the quiet life for a while, with a sabbatical in the country to ride horses and enjoy the freedom of not being committed to a six-day a week business. That sounds like a lovely idea heading in to Spring, and we wish her all the best.
Looking forward, the new owners of Beess & Co are Jesse and Millar – both of whom are new to the hospitality scene, but are realising a long-held dream by jumping in to the café set in Yarralumla. With respect to the long-established clientele and feel of Beess, Jesse and Millar promise not to change things up, to provide consistency and comfort rather than any sort of revolution.
We’ve heard Beess & Co is looking for a new manager, as Andrea steps aside and the new owners fill the void. If you’ve got a deep love of looking after a passionate local community, you could do a lot worse than rock in to the café for a coffee and a chat.
