CAFE UPDATE

A BIG UPDATE FOR CORNERSMITH

Hello friends. The time has come for us change things up at Cornersmith!

The short story is we are closing the Annandale café doors at the end of the month and having a breather from the intensity of running our own hospo business. Alex will continue to teach cooking classes at The FoodLab Kitchen in Strathfield and anywhere else she is invited! We are making plans with what to do with our much-loved pickles and preserves range (to all our chilli obsessives out there, we will come up with a solution soon we promise). No doubt Jimmy will get bored and start looking for a new shop.

Cornersmith isn’t over! We’re just ready for the next chapter in our business and life. We are incredibly proud of our more than 12 year long stint surviving the Sydney hospitality industry. With the support of our incredible customers, the Cornersmith team, our extended family and dear friends, Cornersmith has stayed a small local family business which we built while we raised our kids. We started our business when our eldest kid started school and she’s just done the HSC!! It’s been a wild ride; we’ve worked our arses off and there has been a lot of tears and sleepless nights. There’s also been intense work satisfaction, the best people, so many laughs, and creative opportunities we never could have imagined.

We started Cornersmith with the aim to feed Inner Westies delicious food and coffee, to build a food community and get people thinking about what they eat and their place in our complex food system. And we feel like we have done that. Cornersmith grew much bigger than us. It took on a life of its own and like lots of small businesses it has often felt like it was in control of us rather than the other way around!

The COVID years took the wind out of our sails and now the reality is that the hospitality industry, like our food system is a bit broken. It seems impossible to do the right thing environmentally, keep customers happy and stay independent and afloat financially. We tried bloody hard and while our passion and purpose hasn’t changed, our bodies, brains and bank balances are a bit exhausted. 

We are keeping the Cornersmith name with us and will re-emerge in a new format. We are determined to use our knowledge and experience to help solve the growing issues in the food and hospitality industry. James and I are always on the hunt for projects, collaborations, spaces and ideas. So, if you’re looking for  a couple of hospo legends please get in touch.

For our Annandale community. We are very sad to say goodbye, thank you for your continued support over the last 8 years (especially during COVID years) Jimmy and the team will really miss you guys. However, there is an awesome new café coming into the space so you will be well looked after.

We will be trading up until the end of Feb. If you need a last poached egg roll, scando breakfast, a high-five with Jimmy, or to pick up a jar of pickles, please pop in. 

We will keep you in the loop with our plans through socials, our website and newsletter. If you haven’t already, sign up or follow us.

All our love and a very big THANKYOU 

Alex and Jimmy xox