The Neighbourhood Kitchen + Bar is Attadale’s newest resident, offering all-day dining and a boutique liquor store where a bottle-o used to be.
Sean and Sarah Mulcock have made a habit of filling empty spaces. First it was Chalkys, which brought much needed quality coffee and on-the-go eats to Fremantle’s old Municipal Tramways depot, then it was High Street Dispensary’s affordable health food that filled a gap in the Port City’s offering. Now, they’ve swapped Freo’s heritage buildings for a defunct bottle shop on the corner of Davis and Moreing roads in Attadale, where they’re providing all-day dining and take-away drinking for loyal locals at The Neighbourhood Kitchen & Coffee.
“People can expect to find a space where you feel instantly at home,” Sean says of the duo’s new digs. “The Neighbourhood is a bit of an amalgamation of both High Street Dispensary and Chalkys – those were focused on quick takeaway goodies but in Attadale, we want you to stay a while.”
And stay a while you will, grazing on their classic brunch and lingering lunch fare in a space that’s casual, abundant in natural light and adorned with dangling greenery – the kind of place, Sean hopes, you’ll grab your takeaway coffee from in the morning but be lured back to by the afternoon for some food and, eventually, something of the alcoholic variety.
So far, The Neighbourhood’s boutique bottle shop – which houses around fifty hand-selected styles with an emphasis on smaller, local producers – will have to suffice on that front. While Friday afternoons have seen bottles of particular interest cracked for tastings, Sean has plans to expand this part of the offering.
“We’re hoping to license the whole venue,” he tells me. “It would be great to see people for their coffee in the morning and again for a splash of wine or a beer in the afternoon.”
The pair opened their doors at the new address back in October, but say that the relationships with curious locals started forming long before then. “It’s a prominent corner and so many people would pop their head in during the building process – we’d be on the tools,” Sean says.
“For us, it’s all about relationships and looking after the neighbourhood.”
With two young boys in tow, Sean and Sarah wanted a business that could establish a sense of community.
“They [the boys] have already made friends with some of our other young customers,” Sean says. “It would be fantastic to see them grow up together.”
“We plan on being around for a while.”
Designers and Builders: SoBE Design and Construct