Zarraffa’s Kiwanda Café

Zarraffa’s Coffee has just launched their new $20 million national headquarters and bespoke café experience: Kiwanda Café.

“It started with the idea of sharing our brand’s history with coffee with customers in a new way. That’s how the idea for Kiwanda Café was born,” says founder and director Kenton Campbell.

Mr Campbell saw great possibilities in the disused commercial warehouse located midway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It’s there on Distillery Road, Eagleby that the 1,200 sqm Kiwanda Café, the ‘Golden Gate to Zarraffa’s’ has been founded. Kiwanda Cafe provides an experience that can’t be wholly replicated by its cafés, including super-premium pour overs, small batch roasts and cupping in the sensory room.

‘Kiwanda’, Swahili for ‘factory’, includes an espresso bar and the Kiwanda Kitchen & Bar nestled beside the busy Zarraffa’s Coffee HQ, a modern open plan head office space, as well as its multi-million-dollar coffee ‘engine room’, the Zarraffa’s Roastery, where coffee is roasted and blended weekly for delivery to its stores.

Zarraffa’s Coffee, established in 1996 by Kenton Campbell, was originally a roasting house operating from the backstreets of Southport. Since then, Mr Campbell has steered the business to a national base of more than 90 stores and $140 million turnover.

‘An individually perfect cup of coffee – every time’ is the company’s mantra, mission and customer expectation. Though the business is a franchise system, its foundations are cemented in the training of franchisees and baristas.

Kiwanda Café

With seating for ninety diners, Kiwanda Café combines a dining, entertaining and connected experience with food for all tastes, including home-style dishes, delicious treats and specialty coffee.

From the quintessential all-day staple of Smashed Avo, to the healthy Goddess Dressed Seasonal Green Bowl, or more filling options such as the Southern Fried Chicken Burger, Pork Belly with Mixed Greens or the KC Burger, diners will be tempted to try a new take on Eggs Benedict, the Shed Bennie, and the beautifully presented and irresistible Berry Leige Waffles.

“What’s also exciting is our ability to roast premium single origins, micro lot, estate and regional coffee beans from right around the world, which will be available at different times throughout the year to enjoy onsite or to take home,” Kenton tells us.

The café is a multi-zoned space, industrial yet homely with elements of natural wood, exposed metal, edges of greenery and a signature fireplace with vaulted ceilings that take in views through a 4-metre high glass window into the roastery.

The walls of the café display ‘The Hands of Coffee’, photographs of the coffee farmers from whom Zarraffa’s buy their coffee. It’s part of the transparency of the venue, reinforced by floor-to-ceiling glass showing off the roastery plus a 60-seat cinema that will show Zarraffa’s origins as well as their conservation ideology, doubling as an amphitheatre for cooking masterclasses and launches.

“Kiwanda is a full 360-degree specialty coffee immersion that our customers are free to enjoy in their own way; through a simple cup of coffee, a take away snack, or a shared meal, a delightful tipple with workmates or spending time on our tours learning about the coffee-making process,” our tour guide tells us.

The Tour

The 1-hour Zarraffa’s Roastery Tour Experience ($25pp) is set to open in September to educate and inform visitors about the Zarraffa’s Coffee bean-to-cup journey through a visual and sensory encounter with coffee.

“Our Tour experience invites visitors to explore and understand the entire coffee journey, from crop to cup,” Kenton Campbell says. “It speaks to our relationships with coffee growing communities across the world, and just what it takes to produce the ‘liquid gold’ we have come to enjoy every day.”

The Marketplace

Zarraffa’s national base and Kiwanda Café are the anchor tenants of what will become Distillery Road Market (DRM), a world class destination focused on people’s love of great food experiences and the communal activities food provides, set to open late 2020/ early 2021.

The unveiling of the destination’s name this week coincides with a call for retailer interest in leasing opportunities, from flagship dine-in restaurants to fresh produce vendors, night and pop-up market opportunities, a home for events, a wide variety of complementary retail opportunities and much more.

Mr Campbell, whose Tonken Property Group also owns and is developing the Distillery Road Market project, believes the time is right for an iconic market experience in the middle of the growth corridor between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

The Founder, Kenton Campbell

As an American ex-pat Mr Campbell has often joked that he had to travel to Australia, over a quarter of a century ago, to make his ‘American Dream’ come true.

“I would not be where I am today if I hadn’t come to Australia when I did and how I did. Australia really is the land of opportunity. This is everything I dreamed of doing under one roof,” he tells us.

Looking around him at the emerging epicentre Mr Campbell says, “All of this development … this is not about me. Kiwanda’s heart is all about community and the fabric of that community. This will be a place of getting together. Food and coffee does that. It’s ‘un-socioeconomic’. It’s about life!”

“Have you ever noticed that the Albert River has the outline of a giraffe?” he adds, noting the area’s serendipitous alignment with the two giraffes that form Zarraffa’s logo, ‘Head and shoulders above the rest!’

He continues talking about his goals for the Logan community, outlining his passion for working with indigenous peoples, conservation and humanitarian issues with Kiwanda the epicentre of his plans, knowing that he may not see the full results of his actions in his lifetime.

“So, I’m continuing with my goal of pursuing opportunities; to bring daily smiles to more of my customers’ faces through a simple cup of coffee, great food and a new hub of shared experiences…this is just the beginning.”