A chat with Laurie MacMillan, owner of Cafe Strange Brew.
* Cafe Strange Brew is a coffee shop based in Shawlands, on the South side of Glasgow and it is one of the most famous destinations for brunch in town.
I call Laurie funnily "Queen of eggs". But it is not for fun, it is real for me. She was the one that introduced me to brunch almost ten years ago. Before opening Cafe Strange Brew, Laurie was head chef in the restaurant close to my cafe and I remember her jumping out from a taxi in the rain, head covered with a scarf, coming in, ordering her americano and coming to take it after one hour.
We laughed a lot about this memory when I brought it to the table.
Time flew from there and seeing how far she went building a name for her made me a proud friend.
In a sector where competing seems the rule, I have always preferred solidarity and support.
I waited for Laurie outside her shop on a cold Friday morning, a couple of minutes before opening time at 9 am. A shy queue was already forming and by the time we had brunch the place was buzzing and I was almost feeling guilty being chatting while others were waiting for a table. But the conversation was getting too interesting I had to put my business owner's soul in the shadow and keep chatting.
It was one of the few times Laurie was sitting in her cafe enjoying a cup or two of coffee and one of her specials. I could not change my order as I am always ordering the same since she opened where Julie's Kopitiam was until last December. It was called That Guy, now I refuse to memorize his new name. But it is still there on the menu, thanks, God.
A passion coming since she was a child. It seems the beginning of everyone's story. It was not exactly like this because, as Laurie said different times, it happened "accidentally".
"I used to write menus, draw menus and give them to family, no cooking back then but the menu game was pretty strong" she smiles surely remembering how no one took her into consideration those days. She wanted to be an art teacher, she did college with that dream in mind but things started to change when she started working at 13 years old, in kitchens.
"I think I was kind of destined for this job. Since I started working, every job I was offered was in the kitchen, nobody would give me an upfront job. It took me a lot of years to realize that this was what I was supposed to be doing. I still went to the art college, I applied also to the School of Art in Glasgow and I got rejected. So I ended up working in kitchens again!
I don't think to be the best chef in the world but my organization, my reliability and my hard-working skills always brought me to run a kitchen in a really short time.
It was later in my 20s that I thought I needed to take this job seriously, that I was good at it and that I enjoyed every bit of it. And then I decided it was finally time to open my own place.
When you opened Cafe Strange Brew you were one of the first places in Glasgow that was bringing some original brunch dishes to the table, in a time where bacon rolls were dominating every breakfast menu. Did you find urself accidentally on the brunch side?
"oh yes, another accident." she laughs"I always worked restaurant hours, from 9 am until 11 pm and after a few years I thought If I have to work those hours I wanted to do it for myself.
So I opened my cafe- I did not have big expectations at the beginning. The normal fear when you are opening up and you don't know if your idea would work. But people proved me wrong as they appreciated what I was cooking for them from the very first days. I think it just was the perfect timing and we became established pretty quickly we had to move where we are now.
I am not a liar saying you set a trend and then a lot of coffee shops adapted their offer to brunch.
Am I right?
"It was pretty funny because we were the first ones that could not understand what we were doing of so epic to have people queuing for a table. We knew we were putting our heart and soul every day into it. It was hard work, creativity, consistency and social media. There is no formula, not magic. I was surprised by the success we were having."
After 6 years the situation has not changed. Like everything also food can be a trend and people can choose new places, try new things. How were you able to keep the interest high and to be always one of the coolest brunch spot destinations?
"As I said before for me consistency is key. The kitchen has always been consistent, I have always been there cooking alongside my team. I am happy to say we have a low turnover of staff which means they know well how to work and how to make feel customers special all the time. Consistency also for the time, we are always open apart really extreme circumstances. We are your reliable friend!
I think also consistency through social media has been important through the years. I try to post at least every two days. I try to think as if I was a customer and to remind people " Hey we are here!"
Your menu has adapted over the years. I remember in the first days the offer was mostly focused on the savory side then another of your bestseller was introduced. I am talking about pancakes, that before being a brunch thing, were done in Glasgow only in some American eateries. We all know how it went!
Accidentally again, I put them on the specials board and they were welcomed with so much enthusiasm we could not put them on the menu! I think I took inspiration from cafes in Australia. Australia is absolutely next-level brunch food, it is a kind of Mecca for brunch and can't stop scrolling on Instagram.
The food scene changed a lot in Glasgow, also new areas are growing a lot in terms of food offered. Southside is one of them.
I love the fact that there has been a rise in independent business opening up. Businesses that have their unique selling points and that bring life to parts of the city that were totally out of the food map.
When I first moved to Glasgow I started living in the southside and I never moved from here. When it was time to choose a location for my business it felt natural to consider my neighborhood the place for it. Apart from the impossible costs to afford to open a business in other areas of the city, I spotted also a gap in the market. A lot of people living in the area but not so many food businesses.
It happened the same with Mesa, the other coffee shop I have with my business partner Andrea, in the heart of Dennistoun. Another area of Glasgow that I love a lot for its vibe and where I always wanted to open something.
A bit more personal here as I feel this is a side that as business owners we feel a lot, even if our businesses are successful and even if people show clearly they love us.
How do you deal with this kind of social pressure of always being on top of the game, of doing a job that people would appreciate and of dealing with the power social media gave to people?
The pressure is real. For a few years before the pandemic, I was obsessed with judgment. I woke up in the morning and the first thing I was doing was to check trip advisor, if there was any negative comment about the cafe. The truth is you get judged all the time and it takes a while to give this the real dimension it deserves.
I am a lot better at switching off now. You need to learn that there would always be someone that would not like what you do despite the fact you are putting on it your heart and soul.
One thing that really hurts me is when people are trying to put business against each other. We are all in the same game and we would need more solidarity than harmful comments on social media.
It takes years of experience to be calm, I think you have to make the mistake to put your point across to realize that was not the best thing to do!
These two-three years have been hard for the hospitality business. There has been also great help from the government for businesses to "survive and stand up" after but it seems the situation now is spiraling badly again for so many reasons. How are you dealing with it?
You are right- costs just went higher and higher and it seems it has no intention to stop. I keep checking things everywhere trying to reduce the costs without sacrificing our quality. I am glad we have always been frugal and that we do not have any food waste and I think we will continue this way, working with our suppliers and keep supporting each other.
You are working in kitchens since you were young. Being a chef woman is now something normal. Was it like this when you started? How things have changed?
I have to say there is a thing that makes me happy and it is about the huge improvements we had over the decades. There is much more respect and awareness.
In the past was common to see scenes of toxic masculinity in the kitchen. You were made to feel weird or troublemaker if you objected to that "culture" but outside was not much better. Things like being touched against your will were kind of normalized and not just at work.
That changed massively, we progress massively and it is great. Men on the other side are more conscious of not accepting that behaviour from colleagues.
You are also more celebrated as a woman chef- a lot more girls are now in the kitchen. It is a more accessible environment- you are not anymore made to feel like the stupid girl in the kitchen. It all became more equal.
This is a question I always do as I think there is a lot to learn from colleagues in the industry. An advice you would give to someone that wants to open a shop.
Be prepared to have no money. This was luckily not my experience as after 5 months I was able to enjoy my salary but it can take longer to find your way into the business. Everyone is different.
Be ready to make sacrifices and be sure to take care of your health, in every sense.
This is a highly demanding and intense job with a lot of responsibilities and burnout is a thing that happens to many.
My advice on this, as even the most successful business owner can have difficult moments, is to listen to yourself and not be ashamed to ask for help if needed.
If the business is drugging you down mentally and it is a burden there is no shame in saying you cannot do anymore. It is ok to say I cannot do anymore.
We need to normalize it and realize we are humans. Talking with colleagues can be a big relief but also looking to find solutions that make you feel better. We would also need to put ourselves out of the superhero dimension and think that even if our business is important to us if we close a day it would not be the end of the world.
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