Cutting through in the contemporary café market

French-born and trained chef David Bitton and his wife Sohani started in the café business more than two decades ago, and today Bitton Gourmet Café & Grocer is not only a much-loved local icon in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Alexandria, it has since been complemented by Bitton Oatley, a café, bistro and functions venue in Sydney’s southern suburbs, and Bitton Rose Bay which is a café by day and cosy French bistro by night.

The business’ reputation rests upon selling five star food at café prices, thanks to the dedication and commitment of the Bittons, who both worked for many years in five star hotels. 

“My wife and I simply put in place what we learned from our days in hospitality,” is the way David explains his success. “We know what customer service is all about – not only do we offer great food, but we give people a warm welcome, we make friends with our customers. A good café should be not just about a business transaction but a dining experience.”

David’s philosophy is that café food should be of the same high quality as a five star restaurant – it shouldn’t be boring or quickly thrown together. And he communicates his focus to his staff: “I tell everyone you have create an emotional connection with what you do professionally, and I really strongly believe in that. This is the case with cooking too – when my mother cooked a meal, I could taste the love in it. It’s the same with me – there has to be love in what you do. My staff is brainwashed with this idea, because it’s what differentiates us!

“We try to find different ways of serving even the everyday favourites,” David adds. “For example, we’re very well known for our Bacon and Eggs, which we cook and serve in a copper pan, the way it’s done in France. The eggs cook into the bacon which intensifies the flavour.”

He says that over time the menu has been refined and today it is “more French than ever”, adding that “it also has to be simple and seasonal – simple honest cooking. I think business is even harder right now than during the pandemic, at least then we had some support, but I think over the next six months there’s going to be a lot of casualties in the market. People are tightening their belts, they’re dining out less and spending less when they do – I think it’s becoming more of an occasion than a habit.”

To stay competitive in today’s market, David focuses on “delivering value, looking at seasonal bargains, buying whatever’s in the market on the day. I always say that in this business you make your money in the buying, not in the selling. So you have to be careful about your spend and get as much value out of your ingredients as possible.

“For example, we take dinner ingredient leftovers and use them the next day on the lunch menu. I might serve a beautiful pan fried snapper fillet for dinner as a $40 main, but then I will make the trimmings into a fish cake and serve that for lunch the next day with some salad and a little chilli jam. That way there’s no wastage, which is very important.”

“That said, you mustn’t go too complicated because as soon as you do that you lose people. Also, once there’s too many flavours or ingredients it means potential wastage – more things to buy, more things to store – so you have to be smarter about the way you operate.”

Reaping the benefits of menu diversification

Chef Gary Johnson says the café market is reaping the benefits of menu diversification across multiple dayparts. “In the morning there’s now a lot more grab and go, whether it’s toasted sandwiches, savoury muffins, sweet croissants to go with coffee – people are time poor so they eat and run. Then as lunch comes around you’ll often have group bookings of business meetings or baby groups who’ll come in for something light, such as a quiche, salad or toasted baguette.

“You can also make good sales from pre-made sandwiches or scones which you bring out at different times of the day – there’s nothing better than a beautiful pumpkin and date scone with a little clotted cream, served straight out of the oven to enjoy with a cup of English breakfast tea.

“And then of course a lot of cafes are staying open into the evenings because customers are increasingly looking for alcohol alternatives – frappes, coffees, lattes.

“As diversified as we’ve become in our menus, and depending upon your demographic, I think lighter meals, grab and go, and great coffee and tea are the key components you need in the café business today. You might even look at single origin or organically grown beverages as a selling point – connecting with local suppliers and offering sustainable produce is a great way to build customer loyalty and differentiate your café from the competition.”

Gary adds it’s important to have a balanced menu which includes the classics which customers expect. “When I ran the café at the Sydney Hilton, the number one seller, believe it or not, was a ham and cheese toastie! It was made with nice sourdough bread, beautiful shaved leg ha, gruyere cheese and a little spread of Dijon Mustard. If you’re going to serve those classics, you need to do it right – quality and consistency is always key.

“We once changed the milk in one of our cafes because we thought we were getting a better deal, but we lost about 40 per cent of our business inside a week because customers recognised the change and they weren’t happy about it. We had to go back to our original supplier real quick and we didn’t take that risk again.

“The other thing I would say about the café business is that it’s the type of business where you have to eat, sleep and breathe it. And although it can be a very low average cheque, it’s a very fast and dynamic environment - so if we could clone cafe workers and breed them with four arms that would be great! You need to be able to pump out several coffees a minute while at the same time not forgetting about the frappe on the milkshake machine, the muffin in the toaster, the order for the smoothie or the fresh juice - it can be a relentless business, so it’s not one for the faint-hearted!”

Social media driving presentation trends

Chef Peter Wright defines contemporary café business as encompassing three distinct business components – “there’s dine-in, there’s people ordering meals to get delivered which has become a part of everyone’s life now, and there’s grab and go. To be successful you have to be proficient in all three areas, so it’s a very complex market to be part of today. You need to make sure you’re going your sit down customers sufficient attention while at the same time being efficient enough to service your grab and go customers and have everything ready for when your delivery drivers show up.”

Peter adds that the coffee market has grown exponentially given the extension of coffee into cold beverages. “We’re seeing a lot of value adding to beverages – icing drinks like frappes, mixing them with different flavours, adding syrups and creams and garnishes. This has been very big in Asian for a while with bubble teas and the like and now it’s transitioning into a major sales channel, with beverages which echo the 1950s ice cream sodas.

“It’s that visual appeal consumers are going for – a bit of chocolate topping running down the outside of the parfait glass, frosty ice and lots of flavour. And the pricepoints for those beverages makes them highly profitable.”

He emphasises that today presentation is as important as food quality, and that contemporary styles are being heavily influenced by social media. “We’ve all seen those images of multiple toasted cheese sandwiches stacked atop each other with melted cheese drizzling down the side of the 10cm pile, burgers piled high with pickles to give extra weight and colour.

“How food is served today is all about wow factor. People eat with their eyes first and those at the next table are always looking at the orders as they come out to be served. It’s being driven by Instagram and Tiktok and there’s no signs of that trend diminishing – people love to post what they’re eating, so as a café proprietor what you want to do is create something that presents so strikingly that people will want not just to eat it but to photograph and post it.”