IN pre-1988 Brisbane, John Lazarou remembers, the CBD slept after dark, leaving the odd hamburger joint or pizza shop as the only place open after 7pm.
It was only in the afterglow of World Expo ‘88 that Brisbane’s café society was born.
Among that first generation of cafés was an Eagle St Pier establishment called the Coffee Club, for which Lazarou had quit hairdressing to manage in 1989.
It certainly looked schmick, he says.
The actual logo was based on the Cotton Club and it had a very retro feel to it. Lots of curves, nice timber work, beautiful brown and black marble throughout the store.
Retro has since given way to the clean, simple lines of modern minimalism at the Coffee Club, now a chain of nearly 200 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
And the Coffee Club’s owners – Lazarou (20 per cent), Emmanuel Drivas (40 per cent) and Emmanuel Kokoris (40 per cent) – look forward to seeing their chain at the forefront of the fledgling café societies of Asia: from Bangkok to Dubai, Mumbai, Seoul and Beijing.
Last week, Thailand’s largest hotel and fast food operator, Minor International, announced it had agreed to take a 50 per cent stake in the Coffee Club for $23 million.
Minor, which will acquire the Coffee Club master franchise for Thailand, already has a footprint across Asia with its Burger King, Sizzler, The Pizza Shop and Swensens Ice Cream franchises.
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