The Mirosevich brothers have just launched a new business - their second in a matter of months - and are running low on sleep but high on adrenaline.
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George and Matthew are an ambitious duo. They opened the doors to their "grab and go" cafe, Bare Chefs, in Newcastle's Honeysuckle precinct last week. It is entirely different from The Bare Chested Chef, a premium on-site catering business the pair conceived during the pandemic lockdown months and officially launched in January.
Bare Chefs is strategically surrounded by offices and residential apartments, and is all about health and convenience. Meals are prepared fresh, daily, on-site and marketed towards corporate clients and time-poor inner-city workers keen on a healthy restaurant-quality lunch.
The menu ranges from fruit cups and sandwiches through to meal bowls and sweet treats. All food is chilled and packaged with re-heat instructions.
Refining the Bare Chefs business plan has been an ongoing process of trial and error, George Mirosevich told Food & Wine.
"We've gone back and forth, figuring out what works and doesn't work, but I think we're onto something now," he said.
"The direction we are going, this was never really planned. We're going with the flow. You've got to have that perpetual move-forward motion and that mindset and you've got to stay positive the whole way.
"If it doesn't work out, that's OK, as long as you are still moving forward. There's no plan B, this is plan A and it's going to work."
The "made fresh daily" business model has proven challenging but is essential for the long-term success of Bare Chefs.
"It's not a business model that is easy to run by any means - it would be much easier to chuck a whole lot of preservatives and additives in every recipe, Cryovac it up and let it sit on the shelf for seven days," Mirosevich said.
"Yes, that'd be easy, but would it be better? No.
"We don't leave the kitchen until about 1.30 or 2 in the morning and we are back there about 4 or 4.30am. There's no longevity in that but it's necessary right now."
It's necessary because the brothers are "in this for the long haul", he said. Their plans are to "scale the business across the country" and they hope to achieve that through a focus on corporate clients.
"There's always a sacrifice made when it comes to takeaway food, whether it's with quality or nutrition. But it doesn't have to be that way," he said.
"We look at ourselves as a restaurant in a box. As long as you have a fridge and a microwave, you have access to our entire menu.
"We're cutting out the time and fuss of having restaurant-quality meals at lunch time. We're not saying don't go to restaurants. I love going to restaurants.
"But when you are poor on time, and you need something fast and nutritious to eat where you can be in and out in three minutes, we're the place to go."
Mirosevich is thrilled to see the products "out there" but it's now time to "knuckle down on marketing the business".
"The retail front at Honeysuckle is proving to be a lot of fun and it's great for brand awareness and familiarity for customers but really, our bread and butter and where we are heading with this, is to corporate clients," he explained.
"Twenty to 30 meals ordered at a time by a client, several days a week.
"We've been asking our corporate Bare Chested Chef clients for feedback and I'm asking them to be very picky.
"Yes, I am a chef, yes I have been cooking a long time, but have I done something like this before? Not at all. That's why honest and constructive feedback is so important, and ultimately beneficial to us and our clients."
Bare Chefs, 18 Honeysuckle Drive, Newcastle (barechefs.com).
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