Siblings Mati and Leah Gourlay, who opened Hustl’s doors for the first time at Queenstown Central last Friday, have spent years working at Halo, the popular CBD cafe owned by their parents Bruce and Claire.
Leah, 22, says the venture was their dad’s idea after the premises, in Queenstown Central’s ‘The Market’ area near The Meat Preachers, became available.
‘‘He said we should open some thing out there, and then he said, ‘you guys run it’.
‘‘We’re like, ‘we can do this, we’ll give it a good go’.
‘‘We love hospitality, it’s in our blood.’’
She and Mati, 29, have learned heaps from their parents.
‘‘There’s a lot of them in us — dad’s the businessman and mum’s the creative one.’’
The decor, food and drink menu, and its philosophy, have been heavily influenced by her and her brother’s overseas experiences, she says.
‘‘When we travel abroad we always work in cafes, and we’ve taken new ideas from all those places and brought them here.
‘‘It’s very cosy and homely, with orange and brown and lots of house plants.’’
They want customers to enjoy some ‘‘you-time’’ instead of rushing in and out.
‘‘It’s a nice place to come and enjoy coffee — we’re aiming at sitting-in rather than taking away.’’
The pair are taking sustainability seriously with composting and minimising waste to landfill, including no disposable cups.
