The name Nico Brutti holds a certain significance in my life. I started working for Five Senses Coffee back in 2009 and Nico was getting his first (of many) Synesso?s installed. I had seen coffee machines installed before and had helped out on a few as well, but this installation was unique in my life as I had never installed a machine from the famous Seattle manufacturer.
This isn’t why it has stuck in my mind though, I was young and pretty keen to impress my new colleagues, I was there with Caleb Heinselman, one of our long serving tech guys, and the only parking was about 100m away from the café. I asked Caleb, who is built like an AFL full forward, if the machine was heavy, he said ?no?. I asked him if I would need gloves, he said ?no?. It was about 70m into our walk, we were bashing through a garden to get to the entrance, when I was experiencing the pain of 1000 knives coursing through my shoulders. Being nearly my first day, I grit my teeth and saved my tears for later that night?.
Thankfully, the installation at Nico?s new place ?The Other Office? in Osborne Park went a lot smoother. And I bought gloves! This location is just as interesting though, it is an office building but like none that I have ever seen before! The first thing that you see when you walk up to the entrance of a café is a massive swimming pool and gentle parkland as well as a tennis court and Gym. The outdoor alfresco is brightly coloured and enclosed around the pool and raised garden beds and trees. The interior matches the fresh, bright exterior, there is plenty of natural light coming in and the furniture is eclectic and modern.
Nico has spent a bit of time in the office realm, as a computer support analyst in London with the BBC and GSK ? making the switch to hospitality by opening his first café over 11 years ago! Having some experience in both worlds, he really wanted to create an oasis away from the doldrums of the office cubical. When he was creating the concept with his ideas team, their inspiration was the idea of this ?escape?, saying “Let’s face it. The cold hard truth. Offices are bland and boring.The coffee is stale, the charity chocolates are all out of date. You?d definitely rather be somewhere other than the office. Hence why you came here, the other office.” They have really hit the nail on the head as well; it is like a private holiday to a modern, sleek environment.
The customer base at The Other Office is quite diverse and the food reflects that, they have a mix of high quality ?Grab and Go? sandwiches, Turkish breads, cakes and sweets as well as a modern styled breakfast and lunch menu created by The Other Office chef, Roger. The Office Burger and the Open Cajun Chicken Sandwich are the two most popular items on the menu right now, while Nico?s current favourite (and a hit with me as a ?dude food? lover) is a pulled pork bap with marinated fennel coleslaw!
On the coffee front, Nico always loved Epic Espresso in West Perth and loves the buzz that he gets from going to a busy, serious café. With this in mind, he wanted to take the coffee at this café to the next level. He has a 3 group Synesso running our Crompton Road Blend as well as a rotating single origin (the Colombian Primavaral was on when I dropped in). He has also kicked off with a Marco Uber grinder on his brew bar, using mainly CCD and V60 for his filter options, as well as a Marco ?Bru? unit to pump out some awesome 2L batch brew — for the black coffee lovers!
The café took around 6 months of planning and building and has been really well received in its first five weeks. Nico is getting some great feedback on the coffee and he feels that the local workforce are chuffed that they have a modern, fashionable local to call their own!
The Other Office
Building C, The Garden Office Park,
355 Scarborough Beach Road
Osborne Park , WA, 6017
Opening Hours
Monday — Friday 7:00am — 4:00pm
www.otheroffice.com.au
www.facebook.com/theotherofficecafe
© Photos provided with permission by Matt O’Donohue from Abstract Gourmet. All rights reserved by photographer
