Team Behind Left Field to Open Cafe in Elwood

The team behind Carnegie cafe Left Field is moving to the beach. Steve Rowley, Matthew Vero, Kerrie Townley and Ryan Lording have taken over two tenancies on the ground floor at Elwood House, a new residential development a few minutes from the Elwood boardwalk.

The as-yet unnamed cafe will seat roughly 120 people and will be open seven days. It will focus on breakfast and lunch, but the team has decided to open for dinner a few nights a week, serving a sharing-style menu. The food will be along the lines of the Left Field offering, with new additions and a few old favourites.

“It was really important to find a site that fit us,” says Rowley. “We start construction next week (late July) and are hoping to have a three-month build, in time to be open for spring.

"Elwood to us has always seemed to have a great community feel to it, something that resonated with Matt and myself when the opportunity arose. From the first time we saw the space we were very keen to make into something great for the surrounding area. The quality and point of difference is something that really attracted us to the site. It's our first new build so it needed to be really special for us to stray away from our standard business model."

Elwood House has been designed by Woods Bagot. Architect Fiona Drago will be responsible for the fit-out in the cafe.

The new cafe will open at 2 Pine Avenue, Elwood at the end of October.