I love my shop
SARAH RYAN AND DAMIEN SHAW RUN BAD LOVE CLUB – A BOOZY BAKERY IN MELBOURNE’S WEST.
Where is it? Shop 5, 68-82 Hopkins Street, Footscray.
Describe Bad Love Club in a sentence. A brunch bar by day and a boozy bakery by night.
What exactly is a ‘boozy bakery’? Damien Shaw: It’s a place where a love of great booze and great baking come together and complement each other. Sarah Ryan: We bake sweet pies, cookies and brownies, often spiking them with a fair amount of booze
– or pairing them expertly with cracking craft beer and delicious cocktails. We also transfer our kitchen creativity to the bar, where we make all our own syrups and infusions.
Where did the idea to mix alcohol and baked goods come from? SR: I come from a pretty creative family that loves to feed people. After having baked good stalls at local markets, we added in our love for experimenting with booze. At that time, no one in Melbourne had done this in an informal setting, so we were stoked to be the first to bring it to our beloved pocket of the inner west. Is there a story behind the name? DS: “Bad Love” is an Eric Clapton song, and we bonded over Eric Clapton when we first met. We were tossing around some really naff names for the venue; when this was thrown in the mix we loved it. It sums us up quite well – we never will be a cookie-cutter café or bar.
Describe the space for us. SR: Our venue is colourful (read: pink) with a casual diner vibe; raw surfaces; and beautiful ’80s stone benches. We have these incredible perforated ‘trees’ that are filled with plants. DS: The hand-painted signs are an example of the small details that take our space to the next level.
Talk us through your approach to food. SR: We have a very laidback menu – everything is made from scratch to minimise any wastage (apart from our bread and bagels). The beans are cooked in our epic red wines when they’re no longer enjoyable in a glass; produce comes from local providers. By day, our most popular item is a bagel with plain cream cheese or a ‘Fab Four Jaff’ (local ham, pink peppercorns, cheese and tomato). By night, it’s our pecan or chess pie.
How does the vibe change from day to night? DS: It gets super-cosy, candles come out, and fairy lights make it look like you’re under the stars. SR: Our customers at night want to wind down, curl up with a book under a blanket, or catch up with friends over some pie and cocktails and take it easy. The music becomes softer – much less rock’n’roll, and more easy listening.
What do you love about what you do? DS: I love that I get to be that person who hands someone their first coffee of the day. It’s really cool to think I give someone something they need to go and be a boss.
Are there any drawbacks? SR: When you own a small business, sometimes people think you’re this big, faceless entity with no feelings, so will leave the most ridiculous reviews instead of actually talking to you. We’re also a new venue in a rapidly gentrifying area – people assume we’re new to the area, too, even though Dame went to primary school and high school in Footscray and knows it like the back of his hand!
How can we contact you? badloveclub.com.au