Script & Bean is open for hearty snacks and quality coffee inside Dymocks flagship Rundle Mall store.

It was a fortunate coincidence that led Anne Thornhill to discover the space for her café inside Rundle Mall’s Dymocks.

“It was kind of meant to be,” says Anne, who owns Script & Bean with husband Stuart.

“I know that’s a bit of a phrase, but I’m a great believer in that.”

After dining in the CBD one day last year, Anne received a call from her daughter urgently needing a book for school, so she rushed into Dymocks.

“I think I was that last customer of the day, [they were] kind of cashing up,” she says.

“And I was at the pay desk here and this area was just a complete empty void; it had some plastic chairs in the centre, but it was just an empty space.

“And I thought hmmm… it would make a really nice cafe area.”

Name a better duo: coffee and a book… we’ll wait.

The owner of two coffee vans named Signature Coffee Co. was on the hunt for a bricks-and-mortar outlet, so called Dymocks head office with an offer.

“I left a message… I got a phone call back to say, ‘hey, it’s Dymocks’. And I said ‘I was in your store, would you like me to put a cafe in this area?’” Anne says.

“And they said, ‘Actually, yes, we would’. So I was like, Okay, let’s do this. That’s where it started, and so it is literally by chance – literally. It’s not something that was planned on this scale for myself. But you know what, I’m really pleased that we’ve taken it, I’m really happy.

“We had to put a development application into Adelaide City Council, we worked closely with SA Heritage [because] it’s a heritage listed building. And it’s taken around 10 months to get it through.”

Script & Bean is tucked behind the gift section to the right side of Dymocks’ counter, upstairs from the Mall in the former Regent Theatre space.

The cafe fits around 40 people and pays homage to its location through Penguin Classics posters.

“I love classics. So does my daughter, she’s very much into classics,” Anne says.

“So that’s why we thought we’ll lean into that a little bit because obviously being in here, and it’s such an old building, I thought, you know what, we’ll put those on the walls. It just tied in really nicely.”

One of Our Submarines on show at Script & Bean

Anne’s favourite classics are Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. But the framed print One of Our Submarines by Edward Young holds the most sentimental value as the author was an ex-submariner, which linked back to her husband Stuart.

“[Stuart] is a submarine designer,” Anne says.

“He’s left his engineering job to come into this, he left after 35 years of working in defence.

“He has decided to come out of it. He’s 53 and he’s decided to join me in with this to see if a career break/change does him good.”

The team highlight classics with books and also food, with a menu filled with croissants, scones, cakes, salads, soups and sandwiches.

“We are going to do just simple food, done well,” Anne says. “We’re using [as many] local suppliers within a 10k radius, I would say.”

Anne also says along with coffee, matcha and other popular drinks, there will be 11 different hot chocolate flavours on the menu.

“That’s one of the things that isn’t locally sourced – some are and some aren’t – so they had them imported from the UK,” she says.

Alongside the regular chocolate flavour, Anne will offer raspberry ripple, sticky date pudding, hazelnut, orange and more.

“They work all really well, we had to test them with alternative milks,” she says.

The couple are grateful to be located inside an established business and the cafe will be open when Dymocks is, but close slightly earlier “just so we have time to clean down and make preparations for the next day”.

“We’re hoping they go hand in hand: book, coffee,” Anne says.

“So we’re hoping that we appeal to the people out here, but we’re hoping at the same time, that with a good coffee that we produce, it actually brings people in here that may then go browsing for books.

“This place has been waiting to happen since day one. They have always wanted this space to be a cafe.”

Script & Bean is located inside Dymocks Rundle Mall at Regent Theatre Level 1, Shop 45 101/107 Rundle Mall, Adelaide and is open from Monday to Thursday from 9am until 4pm, Friday from 9am until 7pm and Sunday from 10am until 4pm.

Connect with the business on Instagram for more.