July 26, 2023 • 21 mins
Welcome back to the Served! podcast, Canberra's favourite foodies podcast!
On today's episode, Mick is joined by the owner of Hide and Seek Cafe, Brett Waslin;
- Brett talks about the struggles of trying to start a business during the covid years.
- How did the name "Hide and Seek" come about?
- They make EVERYTHING in house at Hide and Seek - even down to the pickles and the sauces! But Mick wants to know WHY they go to THAT much effort.
- What are a few of the go-to menu items at Hide and Seek Cafe?
- Brett reveals his top favourite places to dine out in Canberra, with a few even providing inspiration for the cafe!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Later. Oh my goodness, the food looks and smells amazing.
I have you hungry? This is this Servis podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello and welcome back to Served, where we are serving
you up a ton of great foody suggestions here in
the nation's capital. I am your host, Mick Carojuana. I
hope you've all been staying extremely warm this winter. It
has been a very very chilly one, that's for sure.
One way to stay warm is by having some nice
cozy food, and I personally feel like a nice breakfast
(00:29):
slash brunch from a cafe is the way to go.
I need you have to leave the house and that
kind of then what's the point If you're trying to
stay warm, you might as well to stay inside.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
With the heater.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
But I feel like there is nothing better, nothing better
than getting an eggs benedict on a chili morning. It
just warms the heart that holiday sauce. And speaking of cafes,
today's special guest is the owner and creator of one
of Canberra's newest cafes, Brett Woslin from Hide and See
Cafe in Line and joins me to talk all about
his new cafe, including what it was like trying to
(01:01):
open up during the COVID years. Where did the name
Hide and Seek come from? Plus the importance to him
on making everything and I mean everything in house, seriously everything.
The pickles there are the best pickles I have ever
had in my life. I talk about them a lot
in this podcast. So I'll stop talking about pickles now
(01:22):
because you'll hear it later. That is all on the
way on this episode is served. Opening up a business
in Canberra nowadays, especially after the pandemic, is kind of
like buying a house. Not many people can do it
because the market is blown out of proportion. But if
you can do it, then you're paying for it. But
(01:43):
it doesn't matter because if you're opening up a restaurant,
you love it. And there's one place in particular that
is quite new. It is Hide and Seek Cafe in
Line them and I've got the owner, the creator, a
man behind it all, Brett Woslin to join me to
talk about what it was like opening up a business,
especially after COVID, but also so the passions that he
has for food. Brett, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You're welcome. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
First question, tell us a little bit about you. You
have a food background, you were a chef. I feel
like you probably still are.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah. I started my school based apprenticeship when I was
back at Eddies at Aubergine in like two thousand and eight,
So I've been a chef for like fourteen fifteen years. Yeah,
got to travel the world a bit, got to travel
to Sydney, and it's really really good industry to just
be able to move around and know you're always going
to get a job exactly. You know, you can just
pack up and leave and go somewhere else. And yeah,
came back to canber in like twenty sixteen and had
(02:33):
a bit of an urge to just do something myself,
but it took six years to try and figure out
what that was going to be. More than anything, COVID
really put a bit of a damper on that. I've
had a few things lined up, and then obviously things
fell through, and I kind was kind of very happy
that I didn't open up at that point. And then
those places that I was looking at weren't willing after
COVID to get rid of it. Oh right, okay, so yeah,
(02:56):
and then I guess I guess it just kind of
all came together towards the last like six months, but
I've been looking for five years.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, you know, crazy that it's taken you this long
to finally, you know, open up your little cafe as well.
What's the story behind hide and Seek? Was it always
like six years ago, was like this is what I
want and it's just been this journey or has it
kind of evolved since you first went, Hey, I want
my own business.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I guess when I first started my whole chefing career,
I'm like, I want to do fine dining. I want
to do dinners. I had this whole idea. Yeah, and
as I've worked and worked the hours and worked the
lifestyle that chefs are known for, you kind of change
your perception of what you want to do. Yeah, I've
met my lovely fiance. We're getting married in September. So
I guess my values changed a bit. Yea. And I
(03:41):
guess my idea of what I wanted from very started now.
I want to be at home at night. I want
to be able to have a lifestyle with my partner
and see my friends. You know. So I guess before
I went to London, I was working, you know, eighty
hours a week, went to London, work one hundred hour
weeks came back, and the whole industry had changed a bit.
You know, people working forty five fifty hours, you know,
a lot, but you're kind of at home more. You
(04:02):
see more things, and I think, I guess the cafe
vibe gives me that sort of lifestyle and gives you
know that that lifestyle all my staff and yeah thing
as well, you know, so we get to move and
live a bit better. Yeah, yeah, you know, but I
just still wanted to bring that, like good quality food
to face sense. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, and it is good quality food. And actually no,
it's not good quality food, it's great quality food. I
came the other day and I actually asked you. I went, mate,
what do you recommend? I had two options. I was
going either going to go the Sarte chicken burger or
the Zucchinian corn fruits. And you said, everyone goes for
the zucchini and corn fruits. It's been on the menu
since day dot And I'm so glad I did. I have.
I have a lot of questions about that, but I'll
(04:38):
dive into that a little bit later. I don't want
to jump the gun just yet. How long did it
take to actually find the place itself for Height and Seek.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It was an interesting story. I was. I broke my
leg twice last year.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh so, dude, I've done both my acls in the
past couple of years. I know how you feel.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, yeah, so I broke my leg both once working
for charity, so I feel. I was working for Men's
Link at the time, which, like I am an absolute
believer in Men's Link. Yeah, but I was fishing and
I slipped on the lake and fell into Lake Burly
Griffin and snapped all my ankle. So I had my
amazing twelve year old young man that I was working
with at the time pull me out of Lake Burley Griffin.
Had to call my fiance to pick us up to drive.
(05:22):
So it was a whole story.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
But I think not being able to work kind of
really pushed me, really pushed me into finding that space.
So the first time I broke my leg, we'll look
in another shop. Me and another partner. Problem with it
is out of COVID, people valuing businesses like they were
valuing houses. Yeah, just astronomical because I had all this cash.
And then the second time I broke my leg, I
was just scrolling through Facebook and.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
How you broke your leg?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
No, no, no, no, Yeah, I was a rough, rough
baseball Now I was playing baseball. I was playing baseball
the second time I broke in, But while I was
off with a broken league second time, I was just
scrolling through Facebook and a lad came up. I clicked
on it, and it took me to this page of
a few other places up for sale and a new
listing today, and this place. I just jumped on it.
(06:05):
It took about five months to get everything sort It
didn't look like it was going through. At one point
the lease was a little short, and so we had
to do a bit of negotiating and and we came
out in a good spot for both parties. Yeah, and
I was like, oh, this isn't going to go ahead,
And I was really really up, really down. Of course,
I was just like I had my heart set on it.
I had a criteria of what I wanted. Big windows
(06:26):
on a corner, natural light, natural shops, making it that
community vibe people to come to. And you know what,
it's shown a lot of customers have come. But I
had that criteria and this ticked every box. The other
places I was like, giving a little bit here giving
a little bit there just to try and find it.
But this was like the place I wanted, and yeah,
it didn't look like And then I got a phone
call being like, you can be in there in a
week and a half. So I had to drop everything.
(06:48):
I had to drop everything and just push it through
as quick as I could. I'm very, very fortunate that
everyone that helped me out at Hide and Seek was
part of me family. My builders were my cousins, one
of my groomsmen's my electrician, and my brother in law
to be is my plumber. Oh nice, and my sixty
something year old dad painted the whole entire building.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
We love that.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So it was sort of a bit of love of labor. Yeah,
but yeah, it came very together very quickly. So if
I was at the mercy of other trades, probably it
would have taken a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Longer, exactly. And you also wouldn't have that sort of
even more special connection to it because you had so
many friends and family help out with making it the
beautiful cafe that you now can see when you walk in. Yeah,
you love it even more. And the fact that it
ticked all the boxes, you know, happy days. Yeah, Yeah,
what about the name hide and Seek. Is there a
fun story behind it, like you know with Ted Moseby
(07:35):
and how I met your mother and how they want
to open up the bar Puzzles? Is there a cool
story or is it just a hate We like the name.
We went with it. We should buy a bar, of course,
we should buy a bar.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
We should totally buy a bar. The name of our
bar puzzles, people would be like, why is there Carl Puzzles.
That's the puzzle. That is a great name for a
It is very hard to name a cafe. It is
(08:07):
very very hard. Everything you know, you know, like coffee
and grind, grind, all those things like brew, everything's taken,
everything's trademarked. Here to the wa, all right. So we
had to think a little outside the box. My partner
is a primary school teacher, and we sort of loved
like child childhood games, you know what I mean, Like
I love that bar in the city. It's no longer
(08:27):
there anymore, but playground. I love the name of that.
So I just kind of wanted to have a bit
of a play have something. And we went through everything.
We tried to We tried to put like grind and
seek or like you know what I mean like we
tried to end. Then my partner was just like, what
about just hide and seek. We're at the North Line
and shop, so it's a little hidden.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
It is hidden.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
You wouldn't know about it unless you drove past, or
you heard from a friend, or you heard some marketing
like it's not on show.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
No true, so it kind of fitted. It worked well yeah, yeah, true, Yeah, no,
that's perfect. I'm trying to think of other childhood games
that could have worked. I feel like forty four Home
or thumbs Up don't have the same.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
No, it doesn't have the ring. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
That's why I probably won't be opening a cafe anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But yeah, that's that's sort of the whole idea about
it. It is like we tried everything, and we tried names,
and we tell people and that was sort of the
first name that people were like, oh yeah, go for it.
That works. And then hide and Seek was born.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
With your cafe as well. You make everything in house.
How does that go for you? Is it a lot tougher,
but is it worth it because the product is, you know,
something that you pride yourself on.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I've got some pretty amazing chefs that have let me
work on the floor. So I've got the old head
chef from the plot at Pieligo, Josh. He's he's unreal.
He leads that team so well, and he's got such
good ideas and just they all have a good drive.
They all can see the goal once we get up
and going, and we can smash it like they can
all see that goal of being known as that cafe
(09:53):
and camera. The product speaks for itself, you know, when
we're different from every other cafe because their respee is
a different you know, we're not by the same product
that the four companies in Canberra supply. We can also
tell people what's in it. We can be proud of
our product. We can show people what we have is
different to what other cafes have, you know, and it
sets us a little bit different. We have to have
our own angle. Every cafe has to have their own angle,
(10:15):
of course, you know. So I guess that's sort of ours.
Lean on the skills that our.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Chefs have and the big thing that I know as well,
of you guys doing everything in house, your Celiac fryers,
which I think is a game changer. I think it
is perfect, especially in this sort of day and age.
What was the reasoning behind that? Was it to make
it more accessible? And I was about to say eatable
and I'm going to stick with it eatable for everybody.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I think. It's just like you've got to be adaptable
these days. Yeah, there are so many dietrees and health
health diet trees that people need to survive and if
you can't offer that, you cut half your market. No, exactly,
And so we have a full gluten free toaster as well.
Like we're very careful and certain about where we are.
It's like you've got to be Slip up could change everything.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
And like you told me when I came in on
the weekend that you know, everything's done in house except
the donuts because you don't want to risk that cross
contaminating the siliac friars as well, which I think is beautiful.
And you bring the donuts in from a local place,
don't you.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
We get them from a bakery in Sydney that used
to be my friend's bakery. But they're amazing. They make them.
I call them up at three o'clock in the afternoon,
tell them what I want, they make it and it's
here by five am. Oh love that so they're pretty
amazing and yeah, just get to sport a friend as well.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Now I want to talk about the food, alrighty, first
question on this zucchini and corn fritter. I have been
holding on this his question since I came in eight
here those pickles. Is there any chance you could hook
that up to an IV drip and just pump that
into my veins? They are the best pickles I have
ever had in my life.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
That is all made in house.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yep, everything's made in house. We just we work with
local farmers. We work with like Chocolate by Joe, which
is at our shop, so farm to doll sort of stuff. Yeah.
So it's also about the ingredient and sort of keeping
it a bit simple but a little fun twist on
it by making a yellow Oh it was.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I don't know how to describe it, but not it's
just so sweet and it works so well with the
zecchini and corn fruitter is too. But I could if
you just slapped a plate down with like layers of
these pickles on, I think that should be a menu item.
You probably won't be, and that's why you have the business.
And I don't, dude, what's your favorite item on the menu.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Oh, I really love Josh's Banoffi pie French toast. I
think it's I think it's something a bit different. We
use an awesome Breosh burger role nice so it gives
us a bit of texture. We use nice mask of
pone and yeah, no, that's really really cool. I also
really like our lamb salad. We slow raised that for
like sixteen hours and oh not mix that in there.
But the problem with the menu is we're not problem.
The good thing with the menu is we don't do specials,
(12:46):
so we preprint our menus every time we need to,
so kind of bringing that fine dining aspect into into
the cafe sense, not just having that laminated menu that
it's always the same. You know, we constantly change one
off one on what's it's working, what's not working, What
can we get from the farmers down the road, So
we go talk to them, we get what we can,
we bring it back and we make it work. So
(13:09):
it's kind of that like fine dining aspect into a
cafe sense. It makes it affordable and I.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Think that's very smart as well, especially nowadays, where if
you can see that an item on the menu isn't working.
What's the point of keeping it on exactly?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
And also the cost with everything that's going through, And like,
that's one of the hard things about opening up a
cafe or a restaurant or any sort of business these days,
is the cost or the cost of goods, you know,
the increase of living. And so we work with what's affordable.
You make it affordable. Of course. You know some things
we should charge forty dollars for we.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Can't and don't want to.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You don't want to. No one will come, No one,
even though I think it might be worth it, but
no one will, you know, So you've got to make
it approachable, you know. So yeah, and good and great
we agreed on that.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
The word great. We don't know the word good great,
the word great. What about your partner? How influential and
how much has she helped you during this process?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
She's amazing. Yeah, she is moroc She's got no hospitality experience, none,
but she gives everything a go. She programmed our tills,
you know, we set up with our till company online marketing,
online courses to learn how to do it, and just
wasn't making sense. So she spent probably twenty hours on
just YouTube and stuff and actually programming the tills itself
(14:30):
without looking at these videos and just knuckled down and
did it and just made the system so seamless. And
she's just she's she's a hospital girl. Now she's got
the shoes. She's got everything, she's got, She's got it all.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
And shoes are the big one.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
D Burke is with the closes that ch when you're walking. Yeah,
one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I had a friend who used to work with us
here at the radio station. Her name was Amy, and
then she started working at assembly.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And I don't think I've ever seen her out of
those shoes. It is. I don't think I'll ever be
converted though. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
That's okay, that's all right.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Does she have a favorite menu item too?
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Do you know she eats the smashed avo a lot? Yeah,
a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
My partner and we got that when we came the
other day.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Loved it.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
There was something about the walnuts that was with it too.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, woofed man, it's.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Good, Oh, very good. And that oh I haven't even
mentioned it. That we got the chips too, yep, the
sauce that comes with it, the ali yep.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Oh boy. Yeah, we comfye the garlic and then make
it aoli and blend it through.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So the fact you're making that in house as well,
oh man, that shows it is so good. It is
so good. If other people were to come into Hide
and Seek, what would you recommend they have.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
The Kenning conforit is a pretty good They're our biggest sale.
I kind of threw them on at the start just
to be a bit like, or we'll just get some
good vegetarian option on there. Yep, and they've gone gangbusters.
Our eggs ben is pretty awesome as well, especially our salmon.
When we house cure all that, then we and we
make our own holiday sauce and all that sort of stuff.
So I guess it's all pretty good. It's all great,
(15:59):
it's all great, great, It's yeah, I wouldn't put anything
on the menu. I wasn't happy.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
What I wouldn't enjoy eating myself? You know. That's the
sort of the whole premise of it as well. Well.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I was gonna have to come back to try this
Sarte chicken burger. But now that the fact that you
I completely forgot everything in house, that means the hollandais too.
I do love a good Eggs Benny good and I
prefer a salmon. It's controversial. I go for the salmon
over the bacon.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, it'd be be a bit of a fifty to
fifty split. Yeah. Hide and Seek mushroom Bennie gets a
look in sometimes depending on if it's cold cold okay,
but yeah, crispy bacon. People love crispy, they do, they do.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
But there's something about the salmon man, It's good. There's
something and you do that all there? I mean, I mean,
I'm gonna have to come back multiple times. What about
you though?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Taken away from Hide and Seek quickly? What are your
favorite places to eat at around Canberra?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Oh? I live in Philip So there's a little place
called two Blind Mice Curtain perfect. It's just opened up.
Some good friends of mine as well open that up
and I love it. We walk our dog up there,
get a pizza five o'clock in the afternoon, I mean
bed with a cup of so Going out out's hard,
but going out from like a nice afternoon bye and
(17:16):
a drink is awesome. I mean, you can't be a
Canberra and foodie without loving Raku. No, that is true,
you just can't on done's really really good too. I
really love what Keaton's doing over there. I really want
to try benyt Willis's new restaurant at the bottom of
Realm Lewis okay or Louis, Sorry, don't quote me on
that one. He's just opened it up with the Realm
guys as a creative director and it like that was
(17:38):
probably like three four weeks ago, and it looks awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
What's the vibe of it?
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Is it just yeah, like fun real nice? Yeah? Cool?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, maybe I got to check that out with you.
Place to go? Yeah, did you take any inspiration from
not only just places in Canberra but also your time
working in like Aubergine and different restaurants to Hide and Seek?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
It took The skill of the dining aspect is the
most is sort of like like I said before, it's
like that premise of good techniques create amazing dishes. You
know that you put the time in at the start
because it makes it easier. At the end, it makes
it better. So I wouldn't say, like fine dining, you
could be doing a job for two and a half hours.
You can peel grapes for two and a.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Half hours boring.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, exactly, but you can take aspects of that. Yeah,
what what do you coat the grapes in? What do
you what do you see them? How do you cry
back that down? What's the next step after that? You know?
And that's sort of where we bring that aspect into
the cooking. And that's what I've brought and that's sort
of what Josh is brought as well.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
No, that's awesome And also I'm guessing your experience with
so many other famous chefs around the world, you've got
that knowledge too.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah. He used to work for Neil Perry, a chef
called Tom Carriage in the UK, who's like who won
Great British Menu, just like the original oneped countless. I
think he's got like eight Michelin stars throughout the UK. Now,
that was that was insane. That was that was tough.
It was very tough to live upstairs from the venue.
(19:02):
Oh really your life your life revolved?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, would Yeah, was it tough being upstairs when you
weren't working.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
It wasn't really a time you weren't working is the
big thing. It was always you know, you go over
there for the experience and to work. Yeah, you go
there for that. That's course, that's why I went. I
forgot to see the world while I was over there.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That'll happen, that'll happen.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah I did. I did a pretty awesome stars which
is like working for free in a trial down at
Nathan Outlaws down in Cornwall. Okay, that was unreal. That
was like number two or one in the UK and
like top ten in Europe at the time. So you know,
they used to go out after work and go and
catch the crabs off the rocks and then roast off
and make like a crab sauce for the condition next day.
(19:46):
They used to go and pick the seaweed off the rocks.
They used to go and they had their own fishing
boats that went out into the ocean and picked up
what fish they wanted that day. All they took was
what they wanted. That was interesting. The needed fourteen covers
a night, so the fourteen people that were there were
so looked after, and so just rich y is a
(20:06):
polite way.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Well, but that doesn't matter. That's all in the past.
Now you're back here, you're back in camera, and you're
now the owner, and you know what, you're the proud
dad of an awesome cafe here in Canberra. If you
haven't been to Hide and Seek in North lineum, I
do highly recommend checking it out. If you go before
me to get the Sarte chicken burger or the eggs Benny,
please let me know how it is. I'm sure the
(20:36):
word that you're looking for is great. That is today's
word of the day, it seems. But also just make
sure you say hi to Brett. He's a lovely guy
and it does a great thing. Check him out on
Instagram as well. Hide and Seek line them and just
go and enjoy the food. Dude, thank you so much
for joining me today.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Honestly, I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Well, that's it. You filled up on all the food content.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
You could still a little
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Peckish check out other episodes or follow our Instagram Age
Served Double Underscore Podcast
Later. Oh my goodness, the food looks and smells amazing.
I have you hungry? This is this Servis podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello and welcome back to Served, where we are serving
you up a ton of great foody suggestions here in
the nation's capital. I am your host, Mick Carojuana. I
hope you've all been staying extremely warm this winter. It
has been a very very chilly one, that's for sure.
One way to stay warm is by having some nice
cozy food, and I personally feel like a nice breakfast
(00:29):
slash brunch from a cafe is the way to go.
I need you have to leave the house and that
kind of then what's the point If you're trying to
stay warm, you might as well to stay inside.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
With the heater.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
But I feel like there is nothing better, nothing better
than getting an eggs benedict on a chili morning. It
just warms the heart that holiday sauce. And speaking of cafes,
today's special guest is the owner and creator of one
of Canberra's newest cafes, Brett Woslin from Hide and See
Cafe in Line and joins me to talk all about
his new cafe, including what it was like trying to
(01:01):
open up during the COVID years. Where did the name
Hide and Seek come from? Plus the importance to him
on making everything and I mean everything in house, seriously everything.
The pickles there are the best pickles I have ever
had in my life. I talk about them a lot
in this podcast. So I'll stop talking about pickles now
(01:22):
because you'll hear it later. That is all on the
way on this episode is served. Opening up a business
in Canberra nowadays, especially after the pandemic, is kind of
like buying a house. Not many people can do it
because the market is blown out of proportion. But if
you can do it, then you're paying for it. But
(01:43):
it doesn't matter because if you're opening up a restaurant,
you love it. And there's one place in particular that
is quite new. It is Hide and Seek Cafe in
Line them and I've got the owner, the creator, a
man behind it all, Brett Woslin to join me to
talk about what it was like opening up a business,
especially after COVID, but also so the passions that he
has for food. Brett, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You're welcome. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
First question, tell us a little bit about you. You
have a food background, you were a chef. I feel
like you probably still are.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah. I started my school based apprenticeship when I was
back at Eddies at Aubergine in like two thousand and eight,
So I've been a chef for like fourteen fifteen years. Yeah,
got to travel the world a bit, got to travel
to Sydney, and it's really really good industry to just
be able to move around and know you're always going
to get a job exactly. You know, you can just
pack up and leave and go somewhere else. And yeah,
came back to canber in like twenty sixteen and had
(02:33):
a bit of an urge to just do something myself,
but it took six years to try and figure out
what that was going to be. More than anything, COVID
really put a bit of a damper on that. I've
had a few things lined up, and then obviously things
fell through, and I kind was kind of very happy
that I didn't open up at that point. And then
those places that I was looking at weren't willing after
COVID to get rid of it. Oh right, okay, so yeah,
(02:56):
and then I guess I guess it just kind of
all came together towards the last like six months, but
I've been looking for five years.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, you know, crazy that it's taken you this long
to finally, you know, open up your little cafe as well.
What's the story behind hide and Seek? Was it always
like six years ago, was like this is what I
want and it's just been this journey or has it
kind of evolved since you first went, Hey, I want
my own business.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I guess when I first started my whole chefing career,
I'm like, I want to do fine dining. I want
to do dinners. I had this whole idea. Yeah, and
as I've worked and worked the hours and worked the
lifestyle that chefs are known for, you kind of change
your perception of what you want to do. Yeah, I've
met my lovely fiance. We're getting married in September. So
I guess my values changed a bit. Yea. And I
(03:41):
guess my idea of what I wanted from very started now.
I want to be at home at night. I want
to be able to have a lifestyle with my partner
and see my friends. You know. So I guess before
I went to London, I was working, you know, eighty
hours a week, went to London, work one hundred hour
weeks came back, and the whole industry had changed a bit.
You know, people working forty five fifty hours, you know,
a lot, but you're kind of at home more. You
(04:02):
see more things, and I think, I guess the cafe
vibe gives me that sort of lifestyle and gives you
know that that lifestyle all my staff and yeah thing
as well, you know, so we get to move and
live a bit better. Yeah, yeah, you know, but I
just still wanted to bring that, like good quality food
to face sense. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, and it is good quality food. And actually no,
it's not good quality food, it's great quality food. I
came the other day and I actually asked you. I went, mate,
what do you recommend? I had two options. I was
going either going to go the Sarte chicken burger or
the Zucchinian corn fruits. And you said, everyone goes for
the zucchini and corn fruits. It's been on the menu
since day dot And I'm so glad I did. I have.
I have a lot of questions about that, but I'll
(04:38):
dive into that a little bit later. I don't want
to jump the gun just yet. How long did it
take to actually find the place itself for Height and Seek.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It was an interesting story. I was. I broke my
leg twice last year.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh so, dude, I've done both my acls in the
past couple of years. I know how you feel.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, yeah, so I broke my leg both once working
for charity, so I feel. I was working for Men's
Link at the time, which, like I am an absolute
believer in Men's Link. Yeah, but I was fishing and
I slipped on the lake and fell into Lake Burly
Griffin and snapped all my ankle. So I had my
amazing twelve year old young man that I was working
with at the time pull me out of Lake Burley Griffin.
Had to call my fiance to pick us up to drive.
(05:22):
So it was a whole story.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
But I think not being able to work kind of
really pushed me, really pushed me into finding that space.
So the first time I broke my leg, we'll look
in another shop. Me and another partner. Problem with it
is out of COVID, people valuing businesses like they were
valuing houses. Yeah, just astronomical because I had all this cash.
And then the second time I broke my leg, I
was just scrolling through Facebook and.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
How you broke your leg?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
No, no, no, no, Yeah, I was a rough, rough
baseball Now I was playing baseball. I was playing baseball
the second time I broke in, But while I was
off with a broken league second time, I was just
scrolling through Facebook and a lad came up. I clicked
on it, and it took me to this page of
a few other places up for sale and a new
listing today, and this place. I just jumped on it.
(06:05):
It took about five months to get everything sort It
didn't look like it was going through. At one point
the lease was a little short, and so we had
to do a bit of negotiating and and we came
out in a good spot for both parties. Yeah, and
I was like, oh, this isn't going to go ahead,
And I was really really up, really down. Of course,
I was just like I had my heart set on it.
I had a criteria of what I wanted. Big windows
(06:26):
on a corner, natural light, natural shops, making it that
community vibe people to come to. And you know what,
it's shown a lot of customers have come. But I
had that criteria and this ticked every box. The other
places I was like, giving a little bit here giving
a little bit there just to try and find it.
But this was like the place I wanted, and yeah,
it didn't look like And then I got a phone
call being like, you can be in there in a
week and a half. So I had to drop everything.
(06:48):
I had to drop everything and just push it through
as quick as I could. I'm very, very fortunate that
everyone that helped me out at Hide and Seek was
part of me family. My builders were my cousins, one
of my groomsmen's my electrician, and my brother in law
to be is my plumber. Oh nice, and my sixty
something year old dad painted the whole entire building.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
We love that.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So it was sort of a bit of love of labor. Yeah,
but yeah, it came very together very quickly. So if
I was at the mercy of other trades, probably it
would have taken a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Longer, exactly. And you also wouldn't have that sort of
even more special connection to it because you had so
many friends and family help out with making it the
beautiful cafe that you now can see when you walk in. Yeah,
you love it even more. And the fact that it
ticked all the boxes, you know, happy days. Yeah, Yeah,
what about the name hide and Seek. Is there a
fun story behind it, like you know with Ted Moseby
(07:35):
and how I met your mother and how they want
to open up the bar Puzzles? Is there a cool
story or is it just a hate We like the name.
We went with it. We should buy a bar, of course,
we should buy a bar.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
We should totally buy a bar. The name of our
bar puzzles, people would be like, why is there Carl Puzzles.
That's the puzzle. That is a great name for a
It is very hard to name a cafe. It is
(08:07):
very very hard. Everything you know, you know, like coffee
and grind, grind, all those things like brew, everything's taken,
everything's trademarked. Here to the wa, all right. So we
had to think a little outside the box. My partner
is a primary school teacher, and we sort of loved
like child childhood games, you know what I mean, Like
I love that bar in the city. It's no longer
(08:27):
there anymore, but playground. I love the name of that.
So I just kind of wanted to have a bit
of a play have something. And we went through everything.
We tried to We tried to put like grind and
seek or like you know what I mean like we
tried to end. Then my partner was just like, what
about just hide and seek. We're at the North Line
and shop, so it's a little hidden.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
It is hidden.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
You wouldn't know about it unless you drove past, or
you heard from a friend, or you heard some marketing
like it's not on show.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
No true, so it kind of fitted. It worked well yeah, yeah, true, Yeah, no,
that's perfect. I'm trying to think of other childhood games
that could have worked. I feel like forty four Home
or thumbs Up don't have the same.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
No, it doesn't have the ring. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
That's why I probably won't be opening a cafe anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But yeah, that's that's sort of the whole idea about
it. It is like we tried everything, and we tried names,
and we tell people and that was sort of the
first name that people were like, oh yeah, go for it.
That works. And then hide and Seek was born.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
With your cafe as well. You make everything in house.
How does that go for you? Is it a lot tougher,
but is it worth it because the product is, you know,
something that you pride yourself on.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I've got some pretty amazing chefs that have let me
work on the floor. So I've got the old head
chef from the plot at Pieligo, Josh. He's he's unreal.
He leads that team so well, and he's got such
good ideas and just they all have a good drive.
They all can see the goal once we get up
and going, and we can smash it like they can
all see that goal of being known as that cafe
(09:53):
and camera. The product speaks for itself, you know, when
we're different from every other cafe because their respee is
a different you know, we're not by the same product
that the four companies in Canberra supply. We can also
tell people what's in it. We can be proud of
our product. We can show people what we have is
different to what other cafes have, you know, and it
sets us a little bit different. We have to have
our own angle. Every cafe has to have their own angle,
(10:15):
of course, you know. So I guess that's sort of ours.
Lean on the skills that our.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Chefs have and the big thing that I know as well,
of you guys doing everything in house, your Celiac fryers,
which I think is a game changer. I think it
is perfect, especially in this sort of day and age.
What was the reasoning behind that? Was it to make
it more accessible? And I was about to say eatable
and I'm going to stick with it eatable for everybody.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I think. It's just like you've got to be adaptable
these days. Yeah, there are so many dietrees and health
health diet trees that people need to survive and if
you can't offer that, you cut half your market. No, exactly,
And so we have a full gluten free toaster as well.
Like we're very careful and certain about where we are.
It's like you've got to be Slip up could change everything.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
And like you told me when I came in on
the weekend that you know, everything's done in house except
the donuts because you don't want to risk that cross
contaminating the siliac friars as well, which I think is beautiful.
And you bring the donuts in from a local place,
don't you.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
We get them from a bakery in Sydney that used
to be my friend's bakery. But they're amazing. They make them.
I call them up at three o'clock in the afternoon,
tell them what I want, they make it and it's
here by five am. Oh love that so they're pretty
amazing and yeah, just get to sport a friend as well.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Now I want to talk about the food, alrighty, first
question on this zucchini and corn fritter. I have been
holding on this his question since I came in eight
here those pickles. Is there any chance you could hook
that up to an IV drip and just pump that
into my veins? They are the best pickles I have
ever had in my life.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
That is all made in house.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yep, everything's made in house. We just we work with
local farmers. We work with like Chocolate by Joe, which
is at our shop, so farm to doll sort of stuff. Yeah.
So it's also about the ingredient and sort of keeping
it a bit simple but a little fun twist on
it by making a yellow Oh it was.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I don't know how to describe it, but not it's
just so sweet and it works so well with the
zecchini and corn fruitter is too. But I could if
you just slapped a plate down with like layers of
these pickles on, I think that should be a menu item.
You probably won't be, and that's why you have the business.
And I don't, dude, what's your favorite item on the menu.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Oh, I really love Josh's Banoffi pie French toast. I
think it's I think it's something a bit different. We
use an awesome Breosh burger role nice so it gives
us a bit of texture. We use nice mask of
pone and yeah, no, that's really really cool. I also
really like our lamb salad. We slow raised that for
like sixteen hours and oh not mix that in there.
But the problem with the menu is we're not problem.
The good thing with the menu is we don't do specials,
(12:46):
so we preprint our menus every time we need to,
so kind of bringing that fine dining aspect into into
the cafe sense, not just having that laminated menu that
it's always the same. You know, we constantly change one
off one on what's it's working, what's not working, What
can we get from the farmers down the road, So
we go talk to them, we get what we can,
we bring it back and we make it work. So
(13:09):
it's kind of that like fine dining aspect into a
cafe sense. It makes it affordable and I.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Think that's very smart as well, especially nowadays, where if
you can see that an item on the menu isn't working.
What's the point of keeping it on exactly?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
And also the cost with everything that's going through, And like,
that's one of the hard things about opening up a
cafe or a restaurant or any sort of business these days,
is the cost or the cost of goods, you know,
the increase of living. And so we work with what's affordable.
You make it affordable. Of course. You know some things
we should charge forty dollars for we.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Can't and don't want to.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You don't want to. No one will come, No one,
even though I think it might be worth it, but
no one will, you know, So you've got to make
it approachable, you know. So yeah, and good and great
we agreed on that.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
The word great. We don't know the word good great,
the word great. What about your partner? How influential and
how much has she helped you during this process?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
She's amazing. Yeah, she is moroc She's got no hospitality experience, none,
but she gives everything a go. She programmed our tills,
you know, we set up with our till company online marketing,
online courses to learn how to do it, and just
wasn't making sense. So she spent probably twenty hours on
just YouTube and stuff and actually programming the tills itself
(14:30):
without looking at these videos and just knuckled down and
did it and just made the system so seamless. And
she's just she's she's a hospital girl. Now she's got
the shoes. She's got everything, she's got, She's got it all.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
And shoes are the big one.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
D Burke is with the closes that ch when you're walking. Yeah,
one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I had a friend who used to work with us
here at the radio station. Her name was Amy, and
then she started working at assembly.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And I don't think I've ever seen her out of
those shoes. It is. I don't think I'll ever be
converted though. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
That's okay, that's all right.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Does she have a favorite menu item too?
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Do you know she eats the smashed avo a lot? Yeah,
a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
My partner and we got that when we came the
other day.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Loved it.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
There was something about the walnuts that was with it too.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, woofed man, it's.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Good, Oh, very good. And that oh I haven't even
mentioned it. That we got the chips too, yep, the
sauce that comes with it, the ali yep.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Oh boy. Yeah, we comfye the garlic and then make
it aoli and blend it through.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So the fact you're making that in house as well,
oh man, that shows it is so good. It is
so good. If other people were to come into Hide
and Seek, what would you recommend they have.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
The Kenning conforit is a pretty good They're our biggest sale.
I kind of threw them on at the start just
to be a bit like, or we'll just get some
good vegetarian option on there. Yep, and they've gone gangbusters.
Our eggs ben is pretty awesome as well, especially our salmon.
When we house cure all that, then we and we
make our own holiday sauce and all that sort of stuff.
So I guess it's all pretty good. It's all great,
(15:59):
it's all great, great, It's yeah, I wouldn't put anything
on the menu. I wasn't happy.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
What I wouldn't enjoy eating myself? You know. That's the
sort of the whole premise of it as well. Well.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I was gonna have to come back to try this
Sarte chicken burger. But now that the fact that you
I completely forgot everything in house, that means the hollandais too.
I do love a good Eggs Benny good and I
prefer a salmon. It's controversial. I go for the salmon
over the bacon.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, it'd be be a bit of a fifty to
fifty split. Yeah. Hide and Seek mushroom Bennie gets a
look in sometimes depending on if it's cold cold okay,
but yeah, crispy bacon. People love crispy, they do, they do.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
But there's something about the salmon man, It's good. There's
something and you do that all there? I mean, I mean,
I'm gonna have to come back multiple times. What about
you though?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Taken away from Hide and Seek quickly? What are your
favorite places to eat at around Canberra?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Oh? I live in Philip So there's a little place
called two Blind Mice Curtain perfect. It's just opened up.
Some good friends of mine as well open that up
and I love it. We walk our dog up there,
get a pizza five o'clock in the afternoon, I mean
bed with a cup of so Going out out's hard,
but going out from like a nice afternoon bye and
(17:16):
a drink is awesome. I mean, you can't be a
Canberra and foodie without loving Raku. No, that is true,
you just can't on done's really really good too. I
really love what Keaton's doing over there. I really want
to try benyt Willis's new restaurant at the bottom of
Realm Lewis okay or Louis, Sorry, don't quote me on
that one. He's just opened it up with the Realm
guys as a creative director and it like that was
(17:38):
probably like three four weeks ago, and it looks awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
What's the vibe of it?
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Is it just yeah, like fun real nice? Yeah? Cool?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, maybe I got to check that out with you.
Place to go? Yeah, did you take any inspiration from
not only just places in Canberra but also your time
working in like Aubergine and different restaurants to Hide and Seek?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
It took The skill of the dining aspect is the
most is sort of like like I said before, it's
like that premise of good techniques create amazing dishes. You
know that you put the time in at the start
because it makes it easier. At the end, it makes
it better. So I wouldn't say, like fine dining, you
could be doing a job for two and a half hours.
You can peel grapes for two and a.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Half hours boring.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, exactly, but you can take aspects of that. Yeah,
what what do you coat the grapes in? What do
you what do you see them? How do you cry
back that down? What's the next step after that? You know?
And that's sort of where we bring that aspect into
the cooking. And that's what I've brought and that's sort
of what Josh is brought as well.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
No, that's awesome And also I'm guessing your experience with
so many other famous chefs around the world, you've got
that knowledge too.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah. He used to work for Neil Perry, a chef
called Tom Carriage in the UK, who's like who won
Great British Menu, just like the original oneped countless. I
think he's got like eight Michelin stars throughout the UK. Now,
that was that was insane. That was that was tough.
It was very tough to live upstairs from the venue.
(19:02):
Oh really your life your life revolved?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, would Yeah, was it tough being upstairs when you
weren't working.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
It wasn't really a time you weren't working is the
big thing. It was always you know, you go over
there for the experience and to work. Yeah, you go
there for that. That's course, that's why I went. I
forgot to see the world while I was over there.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That'll happen, that'll happen.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah I did. I did a pretty awesome stars which
is like working for free in a trial down at
Nathan Outlaws down in Cornwall. Okay, that was unreal. That
was like number two or one in the UK and
like top ten in Europe at the time. So you know,
they used to go out after work and go and
catch the crabs off the rocks and then roast off
and make like a crab sauce for the condition next day.
(19:46):
They used to go and pick the seaweed off the rocks.
They used to go and they had their own fishing
boats that went out into the ocean and picked up
what fish they wanted that day. All they took was
what they wanted. That was interesting. The needed fourteen covers
a night, so the fourteen people that were there were
so looked after, and so just rich y is a
(20:06):
polite way.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Well, but that doesn't matter. That's all in the past.
Now you're back here, you're back in camera, and you're
now the owner, and you know what, you're the proud
dad of an awesome cafe here in Canberra. If you
haven't been to Hide and Seek in North lineum, I
do highly recommend checking it out. If you go before
me to get the Sarte chicken burger or the eggs Benny,
please let me know how it is. I'm sure the
(20:36):
word that you're looking for is great. That is today's
word of the day, it seems. But also just make
sure you say hi to Brett. He's a lovely guy
and it does a great thing. Check him out on
Instagram as well. Hide and Seek line them and just
go and enjoy the food. Dude, thank you so much
for joining me today.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Honestly, I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Well, that's it. You filled up on all the food content.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
You could still a little
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Peckish check out other episodes or follow our Instagram Age
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