A year on from opening their cafe Two Sisters Garage, siblings Tammy Johnston and Kim Hinds have expanded with Bulli’s first wine and tapas bar of sorts.
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Since running a catering business together, the pair had been looking for something more when the perfect opportunity presented itself – a heritage building in the heart of the home suburb.
Now with the help of Mrs Johnston’s husband Rod, the establishment is serving craft beer, boutique wine and cocktails in the front room.
“It’s something we always planned to do, the courtyard is so beautiful at night,” Mrs Johnston said. “[Rod] went about getting the licence and pushed us along.”
The cafe is still running until as normal – close at 2:30pm seven days a week. However lunch-goers may dine with a glass of Pinot or a pint from the taps if they wish, as well as having an evening nibble from Thursday to Sunday.
It’s family friendly too.
“We wanted to bring something to the community that we wanted to be here,” Mrs Johnton said. “We were just driven on what we felt like the community would like, as locals [ourselves].”
The garage was formerly a picture framing workshop attached to the Beach Art gallery at the historic Stockbank House. It is now shared between the venue and a beauty salon.
The garage doors come down and ... it basically just flips at night to the front.
- Tammy Johnston
The history of the main building goes back to 1888 during Bulli’s prosperous coal mining days.
Over time it has been a bank, an architects office, shire council premises, post offers, boot-maker’s business, private residence, real estate agent, restaurant and art gallery.
The bottom first floor of the building came as part of the deal of renting the cafe space, but the sisters were “biding their time” until they knew the perfect way to utilise it.
Bar service has been running for just over two weeks with many happy customers.
“I think most people are just really happy to have somewhere to go in Bulli, there’s not really been anything up until now besides the pub,” Mrs Johnston said. “[After dark] we put all the candles out and we’ve got fairy lights, it just totally changes the atmosphere and the garage completely closes at night.
“The garage doors come down and its completely closed, it basically just flips at night to the front.”
Entry to the venue in the evenings is via the front room door on Park Road.
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