IT has been a busy six months for the guys behind the popular Mary Street Bakery and recently opened Tiny’s – and they won’t get a chance to take a breather until later this month.
Michael Forde and Paul Aron unveiled their latest bar and restaurant Tinys in QV1 five weeks ago, and last week upgraded their fifth bakery from a sea container, where it was housed for 20 months, to a shop front.
The two venues are opposite each other at the base of the St Georges Terrace tower.
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READ NOWOn June 28, Tiny’s Liquor, which is described as an eclectic 30sqm retail space, will open its doors.
This is all in addition to another venture they opened in Hibernian Place this year.
Mr Aron said the pair chose QV1 for the location and they always planned to open the two ventures at about the same time.
“This is an iconic Perth building and we like the architecture,” he said.
“The city seemed to be moving (in the other direction); we thought it had great bones and there are a lot of people around here and a lot of development this end of the city so we thought it was a good opportunity.
“We were always going to open Mary Street first then Tiny’s, but then there was a lot of redevelopment work happening here so it got delayed, which is fine because it wasn’t really the best time to open a business four years ago.”
Mr Forde said the two were going back to their roots with a liquor venture.
“Our background is in liquor and restaurants; I’ve had five or six businesses on Beaufort Street, Paul had the Greenhouse, I’ve had pubs in Kalgoorlie so the caf business is newer to us than the liquor business,” he said.
Mr Aron said Tiny’s was a less demanding venture.
“Mary Street is a bigger thing; we have a large production kitchen at West Leederville, then five stores and a whole heap of wholesale customers so it’s a 24 hour a day business and it’s quite a lot more involved, whereas Tiny’s runs lunch and dinner six days a week,” he said.
Mr Ford said Mary street Bakery had 90 staff while Tiny’s had 25.