Ground culture cafe
Come visit us and check out all the hard work we’ve put into building the space. We’ve got delicious coffee and toasted sandwiches on offer.
Location:
Shop 5, 170 Lower Main Road, Observatory, 7925
If lost, call Sebastian on 082 683 9470.
The History of the store
July - October 2020
Ground Culture Cafe began as a small market stall in one of the windows of Obz Cafe. We had a tiny space, maybe 4m x 2m, but we were so excited and believed we could make it work.
Over the course of 3 months, we managed to consistently grow our sales week on week. We added new products and even a row of dispensers so we could offer refills for people with their own jars. This encouraged people to follow a more waste free approach, as well as save money at the same time.
We will always be grateful for the opportunity Obz Cafe gave us but after a few months, we felt we could create something truly magical with a bigger space.
November - December 2020
On the same day we left Obz Cafe, we signed the lease straight to our new spot, Ground Culture Cafe on further down on Lower Main Road. An up and coming area of Obs, dubbed Downtown Obs. Our entire set up at Obz Cafe filled about 0.5% of the shop, so we needed to make a bit of money to develop it into a coffee shop.
Over November and December, we focused on delivery corporate gift bundles to the clients and staff of corporations and organisations. We manged to work alongside the UCT Department of Commerce and Scope Facilitation. Between these two organisations, we managed to compile and deliver over 400 packages to people all over South Africa, with the contents made up by mainly the products of Khayelitsha-based entrepreneurs that we work with. This play a big part in funding the development of our coffee shop.
January - April 2021
We had an incredibly small budget but we knew we could make it work. Shelley and I visited every scrap yard between Hermanus and Observatory in search of the best bargains in town. We also managed to sneak a deal at an auction, buying all our tables for just R1 500.
Just after buying everything, we noticed a sign across the street that said “Free pallets”. We thought we could use the pallets to build a bench or something in our front courtyard. Being first-time DIY-ers, we had to learn fast and put together the best bench we could. It came together beautifully, we were so impressed and instantly hooked on DIY.
We realised that we wouldn’t be able to afford paying someone to kit it out, so we just decided to build it ourselves. Since then, we’ve kitted our cafe out with 2 pergolas, a coffee bar and a few tree trunk tables.
We’re still a work in progress but we’d love to show you what we’ve done so far. Cairo wasn’t built in a day, so we thought we’d follow our fellow Africans in suit and develop something that would outlive the rest. Come pop by and see what we’ve created so far.