By Cam Lucadou-Wells
HAMPTON Park’s home of the wildly popular sensation ‘mega shakes’ has long queues of sweet-tooths and is even being chased by international franchises and national shopping centres.
Steven Richard, the owner and director of Sugar Buns bakery cafe, is experiencing his own form of a sugar hit.
He has plans to cash in on the rave reviews with a second store in Dandenong by February.
Titled Sugar Buns Jr, it will focus on kids and “mums with prams”, Mr Richard said.
The craze started with a relaunch of the menu this year. The new lavish and spectacular mega shakes drew customers from across town and interstate.
“The key these days is that people eat with their eyes,” Mr Richard says.
“Every person, before they eat, take a photo of their food and share it (on social media).
“They call it food porn.
“We have to give people the excuse to market for us.”
Behind the scenes, staff meticulously construct the shakes like they’re an artwork, a figment of Willy Wonka’s imagination.
For instance, on top of the ‘chocoholic’ shake is an ice-cream mountain covered in chocolate sauce and affixed with Tim Tams, wafers, fairyfloss – and then lined on the plate with mud cake.
The cafe is typically buzzing with 30 staff.
It now occupies the double-storey retail space next door, more than doubling its capacity, Mr Richard says.
Despite trying to scale back on social media, the cafe’s Instagram followers total 13,000, its Facebook likes about 21,000.
Sugar Buns has placed bollards outside its shop to herd the lines of waiting customers that have run 50 metres deep.
Mr Richard, born and raised in Dandenong, is in no doubt the ‘mega shakes’ are the most popular of their kind in Australia.
On average, Sugar Buns create a staggering 700 mega shakes a day, including the ‘chocoholic’, ‘candyland’, ‘salted caramel’ and ‘strawberry shortcake’.
His closest national competition might make 20 in an hour.
“It’s numbers I’ve never seen in my life,” Mr Richard says.
“Why I made this a success is I never chase the dollar.
“I love the art of hospitality. I made the mega shakes so people feel they’re getting value for money and leaving here completely satisfied.”
Mr Richard is holding off on an international franchise deal, not satisfied that the cafe’s standards can be replicated overseas.
Meanwhile, national shopping centres have been wooing him.
“The interest has been huge. They tell me the amount of traffic you bring to (Hampton Park) shopping centre, we need you here.”
He says he’s ready for the next challenge – to maintain the standard across a number of franchises.
“I’m ready to spend the effort. I’m ready to go.”
Mr Richard is loving his 90-hour week at the cafe, even savouring the long drive from Preston each day.
Mr Richard had set up at Hampton Park shopping centre to be close to his parents Lucille and Burty’s 25-year-old business Lucy’s Divine Cakes and his brother Didier’s Heroes Burger Diner.
When he launched the cafe three years ago, he was told it would never work.
His prospective coffee supplier told him he’d be lucky to serve five kilograms of coffee a week, and refused to stock their coffee at this cafe.
The cafe now has its own specially roasted blend, and Mr Richard has vowed never to use that former coffee supplier again.
“One person told me you’ve changed Hampton Park to Hampton On the Park,” Mr Richard said.
Mr Richard insists it’s not just the food that’s drawing crowds – one family even flying in from Tasmania for the day after seeing a national TV news story.
It’s the buzzy atmosphere, attention to detail and an enthusiastic staff that he teaches to “make a difference”.
“Part of my journey is to inspire the uninspired.”
He said the seemingly overnight success had been built on 12 years in the industry as a cafe developer and investor in about 50 different stores around Melbourne.
Ambitiously, Mr Richard started as an 18 year old jointly involved in a cafe in Pakenham. It forced him to grow up quickly, he says.
It’s helping him to handle his new-found fame, such as being stopped in a Queensland street for his autograph.
“I’ve donated my life to hospitality, now my phone won’t stop ringing.”
