First Look: Cafe Music, From the Wines of While Team, Is Only Here for a Little While

Good news! Fremantle has just welcomed a charming new music bar. Bad news! It’s closing this weekend.

Cafe Music, the pop-up from Wines of While founders Tom Van Beem and Emma Pegrum, has quietly taken over the former Prestige Italian Cafe on Phillimore Street. There are no elaborate cocktails, there is no kitchen pumping out small plates, and no grand opening fanfare. Just records, drinks, a few snacks and a room full of people settling in for the evening.

"We weren't quite ready to open the permanent venue," says Pegrum. "So we thought we'd do something interim in the space."

The couple recently purchased the compact corner site after years of walking past it and imagining its potential. The long-term plan is to transform it into a cafe and wine bar serving seasonal plates, pastries, sandwiches, coffee, wine and the breads that have helped earn Wines of While its devoted following. But before construction begins later this year, they're opening the space for a quick hurrah as part of Arrival Festival.

Pegrum was inspired by the social energy that emerged around the Fremantle Biennale's Ode to Sirens project: a place people drifted through before and after events, catching up between performances.

"It was the HQ," she says. "You met there, you went to your shows, you came back."

Cafe Music looks deliberately improvised. The back half of the venue has been hidden behind curtains. Marketplace finds sit alongside repurposed furniture from the former cafe. White tablecloths cover almost everything. It feels a little theatrical, a little European and entirely unconcerned with perfection.

The drinks list follows a similar philosophy. Mini Martinis arrive in tiny glasses. Negronis, Campari sodas, vermouth and soda, gin and tonics and Swan Draught keep things uncomplicated. Wines rotate from Van Beem's distribution portfolio, including bottles from Manon, Limus and Scintilla. Snacks are limited to olives and crisps.

"It's literally just drinks and snacks," says Pegrum.

The real attraction is the music. Across eight nights, a rotating cast of local selectors takes over the room. This week the line-up includes DJ Sliding Doors, Paul Bilsby, Rok Riley and PMI. The soundtrack shifts nightly, but the intention remains the same: to create somewhere people want to linger.

The pop-up runs until June 6, after which the future of the space remains deliberately open-ended. If Fremantle takes to the concept, Pegrum says Cafe Music may return in some form.

For now, she's simply enjoying seeing people gather in the room.

"The beautiful yellow afternoon light was one of the things that made us fall in love with the space," she says. "It's a pretty beautiful place to be."

Cafe Music

7 Phillimore Street, Fremantle

No phone

Hours:

Wed to Sat 4pm–10pm

Open June 3 to June 6. Artist line-up on Arrival Festival website.

@cafemusic_____

@arrival.fest

arrivalfestival.com/