The cafe and boutique started serving up trendy food and branded Surry Hills coffee from a charmingly disheveled heritage building well before Wollongong’s cafe culture exploded.

And now, the Crown Street business is trailblazing again, tapping in to the emerging scene of talented Illawarra craftspeople through its new shop upstairs.

Simply named The Store, the new venture is – just like Lee and Me – a collaboration between two husband and wife teams. It opened about four weeks ago.

Chrisy Wong and her husband Tony own wooden furniture business Huddle & Co, while Bek Town and her husband Pete run the florist, Floral Pines, from the store.

The two couples joined forces in an effort to sell their own creations, and also give a growing crop of young Illawarra creatives somewhere permanent to show-off their wares.

“There are so many people doing this sort of thing now and there’s a real sense of community, which I’ve noticed growing in the last couple of years,” Ms Town said.

“We’ve connected with a lot of people through Instagram and the region’s market scene, but we wanted to give them another place to show their stuff.”

The foursome have stacked the former clothing boutique full of homewares, furniture and bunches of flowers, and aim to ensure all their stock is ethically produced.

“Everything’s Australian and ethically made, for instance we have rugs that are made in conjunction with communities in India,” Ms Town said.

There are also cards from a Wollongong graphic designer, jewellery from Stanwell Park studio Jika and the Wongs’ own distinctive wooden furniture company, Huddle and Co.

With Tony building the furniture and Chrisy working on jewellery and behind the scenes, the couple made a name for themselves by doing fit outs for a number of local businesses.

These include Crown Lane’s Beast and Bread, Lee and Me, His Boy Elroy and other cafes around the region.

Determined to “be more than your average retail store”, The Store will have a charitable bent.

“Over the Christmas period we’re going to be giving $2 from everything we sell to the refugee crisis,” Ms Wong said.

“We don’t want to just be your average retail space.”