Little Spencer defies pandemic norm and reaches new successes opening Bunbury’s newest trendy cafe in Picton

While businesses throughout WA struggled to manage keeping their doors open through the pandemic, one South West small business has reached new heights after its birth only five months ago. What started as a little teal coffee caravan parked up on some of Bunbury’s best beaches, has now become one of the cities trendiest cafes as Little Spencer Cafe opens its doors in Picton. After buying a 4.5m vintage caravan in July last year, married couple Liam and Cory Harris started Little Spencer in October serving some of the best coffee from the cutest travelling van. The pair started their coffee caravan business Little Spencer in the peak of COVID-19 and within five months of operating have been able to open the doors of their own cafe. Taking over the old Lokah Trading store on South Western Highway, Corey and Liam said their sad goodbyes to their beloved van and jumped into the world of bustling hospitality, opening their dream store at the end of April. Liam said the duo’s passion for coffee and food always inspired the dream to own a cafe, however starting from the humble beginnings of their vintage caravan might have been the trick to their starting success. “A cafe was always the dream, but we thought we should start the business first in the van to build a name for ourselves before we invested in going into a shop,” Liam said. “It’s obviously more expensive moving into the shop, so we wanted to open with a customer base and a name for ourselves from the beginning rather than people not knowing who we are and jumping into this and not being successful.” “That has been really beneficial for us doing that and it’s already working well, we already have a regular client base and people from Bunbury are coming out to see us.” The pair bought the caravan in July last year, spending every evening and weekend for four months fitting it out. Since then, Little Spencer was often spotted around Bunbury’s Back Beach and the Big Swamp Reserve, along with many popular Bunbury events. The teal blue exterior and “Instagram worthy” vibe was a key selling point to the coffee caravan success. “Nowadays, aesthetics and social media play a huge part in profile and success, and having our van that had nice aesthetics helped to put us ahead into getting into events,” Liam said. “We were so lucky with how well everyone responded to us.” However, when the lease for the Lokah Trading Co. building was advertised in March, the duo knew it was the next perfect step towards their dream. “We loved the van but this opportunity to take this store came up and it was too good to miss, it came up on a Friday and within three hours we were like “’do we sign?’” Corey laughed. Now already a busy coffee shop from full of old regulars and new faces, the boys are starting to plan their next steps developing the big entertaining space out the back of the shop, expanding their business into a one-of-a-kind space. “We have been thinking about opening it to having little functions and events here, we would love to have organisations like Bunbury Fringe or the Lost and Found festival,” Liam said. “We would love to even conduct some paint and sip events, that would be cool to go down that path eventually.” “We would also eventually like to put a roaster in here as well and roast our beans on site and do some barista school stuff as well. It would be really cool to introduce that into Bunbury,” Corey said. And while it was a sad goodbye to the van loved by many Bunbury locals, Little Spencer has become a haven for mid-morning coffee catch-ups and no-brainer lunches for the Greater Bunbury region. “We have had an amazing response so far, we have all our regulars who used to come to our van, but also heaps of new trade from around the area,” Liam said. “We ended up knowing quite a few people from the van who actually work around here, so they are bringing their business which has been great. “People love our coffee and love our products and that’s so cool to see.” “It literally gets us up in the morning,” Corey laughed. Little Spencer can be found at 264 South Western Highway, Picton.