When award winning hair stylist Mark Cain and his sibling Marie Cain looked at expanding their successful salon, Head Studio, the decision was not to add more seats in the current salon but to step into a whole new market, a barber shop and café. The barber shop is called Uncle Joe’s and the café is called Uncle Joe’s Mess Hall, with a bit of a take on a military industrial look. Actually, it’s more industrial than the TV set of Mash, which works well in this old city alley space.
Mark found the old warehouse a few doors down from their popular King Street salon, Head Studio. The space is a salute to industrial design and is set up as a perfect man cave. The fit out has lots of cool men’s things hanging from the walls and a row of vintage barber chairs that always has a lineup of waiting punters looking to get their hipsters fade or a blade beard trim.
Uncle Joe’s Mess café is now one of Perth CBD’s most popular coffee spots, and the well trained baristas are pumping out hundreds of coffees daily. The café is using award-winning coffees from Micrology. This new kid on the block, Daniel Ash, recently won the single origin section of the world’s largest coffee roasting competition, The Golden Bean. The perfect match with Australia’s best barber and one of Australia’s best coffee roasters.
The food coming from Uncle Joe’s Mess is amazing, and it was hard to make a choice from this unique menu. I went for “Piggy in the Middle”, which was a warm bagel filled with stringy cola infused pulled pork with a crunchy pickled vegetable salad. The cabinet also offered lots of tasty treats, with pastry chef Charlotte Haygarth creating some café masterpieces.
Perth has had an explosion of new café concepts, and this smart use of two businesses in the one space is a good example of spreading operational costs. So to many who have not been to Perth recently, it’s not just a mining boom happening … there’s also a café and small bar explosion going on.
It’s nice to see other people from outside of hospitality put their own spin on a café idea and concept, so congratulations Mark and Marie on Uncle Joe’s.
Open: Mon – Fri, 7am to 4pm and Sat – 7am to 2pm.
76 King Street Perth WA Phone (08) 9321 4502
