Meet Our Partners: Shelter Cafe, Apollo Bay

Market Lane: Shelter is known for making nourishing whole foods made without additives or unnecessary extras. Why was this approach to food important for you from the beginning?

Tristan: Without a strong philosophy, we’re just a regular cafe. We could have opened with conventional food and conventional distribution services, which prioritises making money. Our intention, instead, was to feed our customers as we’d feed our own family – only serving what we would eat ourselves, which is always whole foods, always organic, always made in house. We run by the philosophy of food as medicine – we prioritise health and looking after people.

Choosing to feed your community as you’d feed your family is a really great vision.

You lose profit margin if you choose to do that, because obviously organic food is more expensive. But we’d rather lose two or three per cent and go to bed and sleep easy at night, knowing we’re not poisoning people just to make money.

How do you see Shelter’s role within the Apollo Bay community, both for locals and for those passing through?

An essential service – not just for the consumption of coffee or food, but socially. Humans are tribal, social animals, and we need places to gather and to feel connected. Our intention was that Shelter would be that for Apollo Bay.

You’re located in one of Apollo Bay’s oldest heritage-listed buildings. What did it mean to you to take on the care of such a historically significant site, and how did the history of the space shape what you wanted Shelter to become?

First and foremost, we’re extremely grateful to have the opportunity to restore Apollo Bay’s oldest home. The idea was initially my mother-in-law’s. She saw potential in the old place, whereas I was very worried about how much it would actually cost. But luckily, with her drive and my sleepless, obsessive nature, we made it what it is today. We’re extremely grateful that we can look after one of Apollo Bay’s historic homes – doing the gardens, doing the interior, and just allowing travellers to come through and have a look at history in motion.

Your menu focuses on house-made meals, including mostly local, organic produce. How important is locality and seasonality to the way you cook and serve food?

For me, it’s of the utmost importance. It has to be made in-house, and it has to be made only using natural ingredients. Organic is always preferred, but not always practical, especially in a small community. It’s hard to get distribution services for 100% organic. Currently, all of our dry stock is organic and gets brought down from a whole foods distribution company in Sydney. Our fruit and veg is around 50% organic, 50% conventional.

But falling back on what I said before – food is medicine. We’ll only serve our community what we would eat ourselves, and it’s always the best we can possibly provide. Money isn’t our number one priority; nurturing is. That means supporting local farmers and supporting small businesses. If we can’t make something in house – I’ll always buy that from a small business. Our menu being seasonal, local and organic is of the utmost importance. Otherwise, we’re just like every other cafe with a deep fryer and hash browns and average bacon. There are no seed oils in our kitchen, there’s no deep fryer. Everything’s made by hand – just the best we can provide for our community.

You serve Market Lane coffee on bar and through the front window, and you also retail beans for home. What does serving ethical specialty coffee mean to you, and how does it fit into Shelter’s broader values?

From the get-go, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Market Lane, in my opinion – and I think it’s the opinion of the collective – is one of Melbourne’s best coffees. I’m personally extremely proud to serve it here at Shelter. I find that the owners and the team at Market Lane actually care, not just about the beans themselves, but also the way they are farmed, and then the farmers themselves and their families. That’s how it should be. We need to raise awareness enough to recognise the people producing behind the scenes, and I feel like Market Lane does that, and does it extremely well. And besides all of that, the coffee is also delicious, and the community loves it. So yeah, we’re very proud.