THE LITTLE MULE

THE LITTLE MULE 
cafe and bike shop, melbourne CBD
- meet Hugh McIntyre

A few years back Hugh, a lifetime rider, noticed a trend towards affordable, imported bikes and this lit a spark. This idea evolved and with business parter Matt Bates, a keen motor-biker, they set about building The Little Mule Company.

RH - TELL ME ABOUT THE BIKES

Matt's brother designed them and the frames are made up in Taiwan. They would not be affordable if we had them made here, and affordability is important. The frames come in various sizes and colours and everything else is customisable. I don't think we have built two bikes the same.

RH - WHY BIKES AND A CAFE HERE AT SOMMERSET PLACE?

HM -  I just wanted a place to put the bikes together,  and a bit of a showroom. Before this Matt was keen to create a space for bikers to socialise - he is into motorbiking - so the cafe was a sort of compromise for us both! We were keen on this site right away as it was really affordable - but it came at a cost... several months (and skips) later we were still going. We both had full time jobs at the time so worked on this when we could.

RH - WHAT INSPIRED THE LOOK AND DESIGN?

HM - We were on a really tight budget and found things on ebay and in junk shops. We got some good wood from a timber recycling place in Port Melbourne and were lucky to have a great carpenter to put some tables and the counter together for us. It just came together.

RH - YOU WERE BOTH IN ADVERTISING, RIGHT? SO HOW DID YOU HANDLE GETTING THE CAFE OFF THE GROUND?

HM - We've now both moved on from advertising land... Matt met a guy in Sydney, Ed from Little Marionette, and he gave us a lot of great advice and even sourced our machine. We use his coffee and I think we are still the only cafe in Melbourne using it. I taught myself how to pull an espresso at my old job at the advertising agency where there was this old machine. I've improved a great deal!

RH - WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE ALONG THE WAY?

HM - Setting up the cafe. This site needed a lot of work with the clean up and then putting in special plumbing and so on. There was also compliance for council regulations. And managing people - I hadn't managed people before - but luckily we got a great team together and they are still with us. They are all self reliant and don't need me standing over them. I am still working full time but I am constantly working on the business in the background, just not as hands on in the cafe as when we started.

RH - ANY ADVICE TO ANYONE THINKING OF OPENING A CAFE?

HM - Talk to people in the business and get advice. Talk about every facet of the business.

The Little Mule 

18 Somerset Place

Melbourne 3000

Mon - Fri  7am - 3pm

Sat  9.30am - 3pm

words and images (c) www.rhphoto.com.au