Expect a different take on brunch classics, a fun community ethos and a supportive strategy to get bang for your buck at Loaded Corner Cafe.

After working in hospitality for eight years, Emma Ponting had never owned a space of her own. But having fallen in love with short-order cooking and finding a great location, she decided the time was just right.

“So it kind of came up out of nowhere – a bit of a spontaneous discovery, and I’ve been wanting to get into running my own cafe for a fair few years now,” Emma says of her decision to open Loaded Corner Cafe.

“I just always really loved that atmosphere created by good food and good customer service as well, it just really tends to bring people back.

“That and the cooking side of things – being able to create and design menu items and find ways to satisfy people, and just making sure that they get the most out of every meal that they order.”

Emma says when she first worked at Big Table in the Central Markets, she worked her way up from waitressing to making juices then finally, in the kitchen in charge of short-order cooking. This was where she “really discovered a passion for it that [she] just didn’t know she had at the time”.

“Chef cooking, or that kind of thing, is more your steaks and restaurant-style food, whereas short order cooking is more like your brunches, sandos,” Emma says.

“Just things that aren’t as intense and don’t take as much technique.”

When designing the menu, Emma wanted to create something that she considers the “cream of the crop” and to also “do [her] own spin” on cafe favourites.

This includes a homemade falafel wrap, banana bread with blueberry butter, the Loaded Lox egg benedict-inspired meal and a honey soy glazed chicken sandwich that is “modelled after [Emma’s] favourite Subway sandwich”.

Along with matchas and smoothies for every type of craving, Emma has also introduced a “vet approved [and] vet friendly” dog menu.

Emma also recognises the cost-of-living crisis and says “people are really concerned about their accounts and how much money they spend when they go out”.

Because of this, she has introduced a $5 meal booster that allows Loaded Corner Cafe to “double up your toppings” or “add some sides and things like that”.

“So it’s just like a baseline price for people to pay that and they can just get all that extra [stuff when they would usually pay] like $8 for salmon, or, you know, six for this, or three for that. It’s just a baseline price. So we can say ‘look, you pay us this, and we’ll beef it up’,” she says.

Emma says she has left the choice with the customer to “pay the standard pricing or make that choice to go a bit bigger and larger”.

When creating Loaded Corner Cafe which opened just last month, Emma wanted a space where “a community can begin to gather”.

“So we went for obviously like the board games Jenga… a little book exchange, selling some records and stuff like that as well,” Emma says.

“I want people to be able to come in here and just feel like they’re having some time off in the middle of the day if they’re working nearby, for example.

“Or somewhere that people feel like they can return to time and time again, and that is always either something new on offer or it’s just like it doesn’t get boring.”

Emma says creating a community is “an integral part of hospitality”.

“I love talking to my regulars, and I love getting to know people and talking to them, hearing their stories,” Emma says.

“And then, you know, when they come back and you’re able to build a relationship with clients and customers and then they begin to enjoy the environment as well because it’s giving that community kind of feeling.

“It keeps a business alive when you have a small community that want to support you.”

Loaded Corner Cafe is located at 40 East Terrace on the corner of Grenfell St. and is open from 7am until 3pm everyday.

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