focused on fermentation

Lilly and Tony Spoljaric and their two sons Even and Rainer are a Geelong-based family all equally passionate about good food and fermentation.

The Spoljarics started their Botanical Brew business journey just under 10 years ago when they inherited their grandfather’s beehive.

“We inherited the beehive from our grandfather, and Evan taught himself everything he needed to know about beekeeping… he studied agricultural science at Melbourne Uni,” Rainer Spoljaric said.

After inheriting the first hive, the idea of Botanical Brew was quickly born.

“Botanical Brew, we started out in Lara, and the idea behind that was producing naturally fermenting kombucha, made by fermenting honey and green tea.”

After a successful launch, Botanical Brew was thrown into disarray when COVID-19 hit, but in order to evolve with the times, Rainer said the family decided to combine their skill sets and open a ferment-focused café championing locally sourced produce.

So just over a year ago they opened the doors to FUNK by Botanical Brew, a speciality coffee and bakery in Geelong West.

“It’s us coming back to our roots in creating a café bakery setting here with a beautiful garden and green space,” Spoljaric said.

“I came from a specialty coffee background, and my dad can from a sourdough baking background.”

“So we had those fundamentals in hospitality, and in fermenting, and Dad’s also a chef.

“So with our skill set and everything we had experience in, we ended up creating FUNK by botanical Brew, which is in Shannon Avenue.

“It was meant to be fermentation-focused.

“We’re incredibly lucky, to have four hard-working people in each area of business, and we’re all incredibly lucky to have each other to lean on, to have each other’s back and support each other, and create something and work towards the vision together.

“It’s keeping us very busy at the moment, and the silver lining to come out of COVID and it’s been an adventure for us.”

FUNK is a welcoming space with a luscious garden and shelves stocked with local produce, including Schulz organic milk, and coffee roasted at Kazbah Coffee Roasters in Birregurra.

“We’re trying to support other local quality speciality producers.”

Looking forward, the family is turning their attention back to fermentations.

“We’re hoping to have the fermented vegetables back on the shelf as part of the core offering.

“The idea is just to have clean, locally-sourced, health-conscious food items that we’re going to be producing for people,” Spoljaric said.

But to Botanical Brew, the space will always be equally about community.

“The highlight has just been the response from the community. The wonderful response we’ve had since opening, it’s really become a strong community bond.”

“We quickly realised there was a lot more than a coffee space, there is a lot of community around here looking for a place to meet and hang out.”

FUNK is at 152 Shannon Avenue, Geelong West, and is open Wednesday to Sunday 7.30 to 3pm.Photo: BOTANICAL BREW