Not-for-profit social enterprise Smiths Social Café has opened its doors at Mirvac’s Smiths Lane masterplanned community in Clyde North.
Connecting the Clyde North community through conversation and coffee, Smiths Social Café is the third social enterprise café from the team behind the popular Now and Not Yet Café in Warrandyte and Shared Cup Café at Mirvac’s Olivine community in Donnybrook.
The team says their mission is to help neighbourhoods flourish by developing viable, sustainable and community-driven social enterprises that feed profit back into the community.
Located within Mirvac’s newly opened Smiths Lane Hub, adjacent to family-favourite Banjo Park, Smiths Social Café allows residents and locals to connect and engage over great food and coffee, with 50 per cent of the profits invested back into the community.
City of Casey local and Café Manager, Mathew Pendle, explains that community is at the heart of Smiths Social Café.
“For us, it’s all about connecting and creating friendly, life-impacting relationships between neighbours,” he said.
“As a local, I know how important it is for our community to find a sense of belonging, and we want people visiting Smiths Social Café to find a reason to stay, meet with others and enjoy the area as it grows.”
Smiths Social Café plans to support and encourage community development through a number of social enterprise activities, including local grants and day-to-day initiatives that respond directly to community needs.
The Café is focused on providing job opportunities to locals, with a number of Smiths Lane residents joining the team.
Head Chef, Alex Park, is also a Clyde North local, bringing 16 years of hospitality experience to the café.
Smiths Lane works in partnership with Cranbourne social enterprise L’Arte Central, whose gourmet pies and sausage rolls are available for takeaway at the cafe.
Smiths Social Café is committed to working with local suppliers that create a positive social impact and serves a two-bean blended coffee roasted by Social Brew, Now and Not Yet’s own house blend coffee roastery which invests profits back into the Victorian community.
Smiths Social Café is the first hospitality venue to join the Smiths Lane masterplanned community which will eventually include over 3,000 homes alongside a proposed future town centre with supermarkets, speciality stores, restaurants, a government school, childcare and educational facilities.
The Café can be found at Smiths Social Hub, 35 O’Connor Avenue, Clyde North, VIC 3978.
