Café thanks community for support

By Lachlan Ellis

It’s been a difficult four months for the owners of the Big Apple Café after a break-in and assault, but they say the outpouring of support from the community has made a real difference.

Café owners Jodie and Meto temporarily closed the Big Apple Café on Bacchus Marsh’s Avenue of Honour, after a drug-affected man broke in after hours and attacked Meto with a hammer last November, leaving him with a brain injury.

The couple re-opened the café on 8 March, and while Meto says he feels better, he still struggles with memory issues and headaches.

“If you ask me, I say I feel alright. But I’m not sure. People say I’ve changed a bit, but I can’t tell. It’s hard, sometimes I struggle with my memory and stress. But I feel much better,” Meto told the Moorabool News.

“After the last three years trying to survive [through the COVID pandemic], this happened after the first summer back. But we’re grateful for the Bacchus Marsh community and our customers. They’ve been amazing. I can’t explain, ‘grateful’ isn’t enough. The community said please stay, we’ll support you…for them I’m staying here. This place is my life, my culture.”

On top of well wishes, cards, hugs and flowers, the Bacchus Marsh community have also chipped in around $12,000 to help Jodie and Meto cover the costs incurred by the ordeal, and some customers have even offered to do volunteer work at the café.

While Jodie and Meto were reluctant to take money from the community, what they owed for rent, repairs, and supplies meant they had to swallow their pride for the sake of the café.

Jodie thanked the local community for their generosity, and keeping their beloved café afloat.

“I’m happy to see all our regulars and friendly faces again, and everyone supporting us has been amazing. The amount of people who have donated to us is unbelievable, all the cards, flowers, gifts…I can’t explain it, I can’t find the words,” Jodie said.

“I thought we were covered for loss of income, but we weren’t…I’d encourage people to check their insurance details very carefully. They told me everything was knocked back except the door, the till, and the lock on the door. Plus our landlords need their rent, electricity payments.

“Insurance gave us $900 or so, they said we weren’t covered for the food spoilage because it didn’t happen that night, it happened because we couldn’t open. Interruption to business they only pay if you can’t open the building…we had the door fixed within a few days, so the insurance said we could use the building after that. We didn’t have a till though. Work cover couldn’t pay Meto because it only pays for staff that may hurt themselves, not the sole trader.”

Once things at the Big Apple Café are back to normal, Jodie and Meto plan to “pay forward” the kindness that has been shown to them.

“I don’t know what we’ll do, but we want to do something to say thank you to the community, once we get back on our feet and bring back a normal menu,” Jodie said.