Torquay café reopens for first time since Gilbert Street fire

A STAPLE of the Torquay coffee scene is back up and running 221 days after it was forced to shut down due to a blaze on Gilbert Street earlier this year.

Torquay Larder owner and operator Travis Povey said the business is up and running once again, after the popular business officially opened its doors last Thursday.

Mr Povey said he was overwhelmed with gratitude following the community’s positive and quick reaction to the business’ reopening, after a fire in April forced the premises to deal with substantial smoke and paint damage.

“It’s been a very busy comeback, we hadn’t advertised we had reopened, just because we wanted to ease into it and get used to the new features we now have in the business,” Mr Povey said.

“It’s been amazing to have that support from the community and our regulars, it’s been seven and a half months since we were last open, and we’re just stoked the business is back to normal service.”

In a business social media post on April 23, the business stated it might be back up and running “in a week or two”, but several inventory checks and cleaning and refurbishing

would not take place for several months as demolition of the Gilbert Street Arcade took place following the fire.

Mr Povey saw the delays as an opportunity to refine and refresh different aspects of the business, with a new floor being installed and new point of sales procedures put in place to name a couple of changes to increase the experience for customers.

 

According to the Country Fire Authority, the fire was believed to have started at Italo’s Wood Fired Pizza, before spreading to the neighbouring McCartney Real Estate premises.

Mr Povey said he, alongside his workers, were gutted when they found out the extent of the damage and the effect it would have on Torquay Larder.

“To actually see the damage the following day, it was pretty devastating, and to catch up with my café manager Georgie and go through the next steps was tough.

“We had to let all of our suppliers know what had happened, then the staff, and I was probably there every day for four weeks straight just seeing if there was anything I could be doing to speed up our re-opening.

“In hindsight, there was not much we could’ve done while all the insurance was being done.”

 

 

The Waurn Ponds local, who has worked out of the building since 2018 and bought the business in 2022, assured the public Torquay Larder is still serving the best toasties and coffees in town.

“We’re just looking forward to having everyone back, the toasties are still as good as ever and it’s already been nice to see all the friendly faces,” Mr Povey said.

Torquay Larder was also able to retain the majority of its casual workers while the business was shut down, running a pop-up café out of Fisho’s Torquay caravan rent-free, for which Mr Povey expressed his gratitude to business owners Luke Edwards and Luke Dalton.

Torquay Larder is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm and 8am to 2pm on the weekend.