After a run of bad luck that culminated in a car crashing into the building and a renovation process that lasted close to three years Owen Stuchbery is finally readying to open the old Terminus milk bar as a cafe.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The 44-seat cafe, directly opposite the Golden Square Hotel on High Street, has been named Madame Jude, after Sutchbery's mother, who passed away just before Christmas.
"The last three years have been pretty terrible, to be honest," the father -of-three said. "There were moments when I wasn't sure if we'd go under."
A car smashed into the building in October 2020 as Mr Sutchbery's family was grappling with COVID-19 lockdowns.
But a silver lining of the "catastrophic crash" was the opportunity to recreate the shop's original "inverted bullnose" verandah and change the configuration of its space.
Stuchbery and his partner, Milica Kastratovic, had been mindful of the history of the 1920s building, which was once a vegetable shop and in the 1960s traded as Bennett's general store before becoming the Terminus milkbar.
IN OTHER NEWS:
"This is where you came for deep fried dim sims and strawberry Big Ms and maybe a Wagon Wheel. It was a business from another time," said Stuchbery, who grew up in Bendigo before "disappearing for 20 years".
Working with builder Damian Flood, he has installed a 4 metre long single-slab redgum bar framed by a tilt window onto the street that aims to "capitalise on the location's heavy traffic".
"We are on the High Street so let's embrace it," the business owner said. "I feel like generally most people like to watch the world zoom by."
They plan to encourage coffee and cake orders via a phone app, and ferry them out to waiting cars.
On the back wall of the room is a mural of "Milly", who Stuchbery lived with for several years in Montenegro, where their children - Andrea, 11, Oliver, 6, and Isabelle, 4 - were born.
Stuchbery's work as a chef on superyachts saw him spend a significant amount of time in the US, as well as the Mediterranean and Caribbean.
It was his American experience that inspired the cafe menu, based on dishes from "the Sun Belt" states - "burgers, sandwiches, salads, peach cobblers, blueberry pies, apple pies, sweet potato pies and American style cookies."
The business will smoke its own sandwich meat, make its own pastries and grind its own hamburger patties, he said. "Aside from the bread, we'll make as much as we can in-house."
Madame Jude is set for a soft opening on July 19.
Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with the Bendigo Advertiser app. Click here to download.
