Zac Schneider enjoys a chat.
It’s the main reason he started making coffee for a living seven years ago.
“I’m really passionate about just being able to have a chat with customers,” he tells Broadsheet. “A lot of the time, particularly in the city, people come on their break to get away from the office and talk to someone who isn’t, you know, one of the five employees they work with. Being able to give them something that they obviously really want, but do it at a high quality, and then be able to have a chinwag with them at the same time is really good.”
Schneider wrapped up a two-year stint at bustling coffee shop Dayjob last month so he could open his first business, Carton Deli, which will take over the space recently vacated by Dunfor Noodle Bar come September. It’ll be open for breakfast and lunch, with a compact menu featuring two hot and two fresh sandwiches. Think Korean fried chicken, jackfruit katsu, and a pita bread wrap filled with falafel, red cabbage, tahini and eggplant. The bocadillo-style breakfast sandwich with scrambled egg, fried jamon and chilli chutney is sure to be the morning menu’s star attraction.
“I’ll rotate the menu often and do lots of sandwich specials,” says Schneider, who'll be joined by chef Connor Fletcher (ex-Shosho).
There’ll also be croissants and other pastries from Market St, hot chocolates with house-made marshmallows, and coffee by local roastery Kindred.
“I want to make specialty coffee more approachable, and that’s all about tailoring the product and service to the customer,” Schneider says. “I always tend to pick my audience as to who I give various specialty coffee spiels to. So if someone just wants their coffee the way they like it, then you give them the best version of that coffee, but if you can see someone is asking lots of questions, then you can start to dive in a bit.”
The shop will keep its minimal timber aesthetic. However, Schneider will make some tweaks here and there – building a new coffee bar, for starters, and giving the shop a lick of paint. “It was one of the things that was so appealing about the venue – that it was already a fitted out cafe.”
That, Schneider says, and the huge number of office workers and businesses abutting Hindmarsh Square, providing him plenty more customers to natter with. “Aside from Exchange, which is a little bit out of the way, and then probably Larry & Ladd on Grenfell Street, there’s nothing really that close. So to be able to get [people] in from around there will be great.”
Carton Deli will open at 62 Pulteney Street on September 5.
