IN THE first year of opening Southern Roasting Co owner Ian Pianta made a deal with a local farmer to set aside an avocado tree just to supply Mr Pianta's cafe.
"The tree had pink tape on it, so I knew which one was mine and I would go out there and pick my 30 avocados each time," Mr Pianta recalls.
It's quirks like these you would only find in country towns, where the paddock-to-plate theme doesn't have to be just an ideology - it can be a commercial reality.
Mr Pianta said it was a no-brainer to maintain a direct link to producers and buy only the freshest, highest quality produce for his cafe, due to its location in one of the major food bowls of Australia.
Just like the cafe's produce, the idea for Southern Roasting Co came about organically for Mr Pianta and his wife April, who moved from the Northern Territory to Manjimup after agreeing to look after a friend's farm for two years.
"I was teaching in Kalgoorlie and we followed the Clontarf organisation to the Northern Territory where we opened a footy academy in Katherine," Mr Pianta said.
"We knew someone who lived in Manjimup who was going overseas for a couple of years and they asked if we would look after their farm while they were away and we jumped at the opportunity to move back to the south west for our kids."
With their four children in tow, the Piantas went about building their life in Manjimup, with Mr Pianta working as a teacher at Manjimup High School and Ms Pianta running her own photography business, Duck Duck Goose, and teaching music classes.
Relishing the farm life, Mr Pianta soon began roasting coffee beans in the farm shed as a hobby.
"At the start we were just roasting the coffee beans for ourselves and then a bit of interest grew amongst our friendship group to get some coffee and that expanded very slowly into a business," Mr Pianta said.
After the two years were up, the family relocated to a five acre property in Pemberton and Mr Pianta collaborated on a coffee and food pop up, called Paddock, with his friend and fellow hospitality worker Lisa Cudby, which was initially meant to run for six weeks, but due to its success stayed open for a year.
After dipping their toes back into the hospitality industry, Ms Cudby went on to open Wild at Heart Cafe in Pemberton while Mr and Mrs Pianta went about renovating an old laundromat in Manjimup, which they opened up as Southern Roasting Co in December, 2018.
With a simple, approachable menu the cafe has maintained a strong focus on providing quality coffee, sourcing their coffee beans from countries along the equatorial belt.
"Lots of our beans are handpicked so we want to make sure our coffee pays respect to those farmers who are doing a lot of work," Mr Pianta said.
"Fortunately Western Australia has a great reputation for its coffee appreciation."
When the local shire put out a tender for a new premises in the Manjimup Heritage Park, Mr and Mrs Pianta successfully threw their hats in the ring and opened up Park Manjimup restaurant in December 2019.
With a different style to that of Southern Roasting Co, Park Manjimup has a commercial kitchen and includes a bar, so customers can sit down and have a wine with their lunch.
"Our Park venture really allowed us to showcase all of the local produce down here and it's a place where you can slow down and relax, while Southern Roasting Co has good, simple, fast, tasty options for food, so you can come in and grab your lunch and get going to where you need to be," Mr Pianta said.
Having opened Park Manjimup just before COVID-19 restrictions first hit WA, the couple were forced to close the restaurant's doors for a few months, but fortunately were able to keep Southern Roasting Co open by providing takeaway options.
Despite having a very loyal customer base, Mr Pianta said the town still relied on passing trade and tourism and that those customers would be vital to the future of Manjimup's local economy.
"Last year we had a lot of domestic travellers returning to the region which was great, and we are certainly looking forward to knowing that the pandemic is all done with and moving forward without having that hanging over our heads," Mr Pianta said.
Having witnessed the town slowly evolve over the years, he said the region still had a lot of potential.
"When we moved here, you couldn't get petrol after 12pm on a Saturday or a Sunday and it was really just a sleepy country town," Mr Pianta said.
Mr Pianta also co-owns Tall Timbers Brewing, at Manjimup, with Ed Fallens, and he said while the town always had some appeal to those driving through, businesses like Tall Timbers were helping to shift the way people viewed Manjimup - from an agricultural services hub and transit town to a destination in its own right.
"There needs to be reasons for people to come to the region and enough things for people to do so they can stay for two or three nights or a week," Mr Pianta said.
"The rivers are stunning, the forests are beautiful and while there is only really Windy Harbour between Augusta and Walpole, our coastline is incredible, so if we have great hospitality businesses to complement those natural attractions - that's all you really need."
Clearly not people to keep still, off the back of Park, Manjimup, the couple also opened Park, Donnybrook, in a restored railway building off the town's main street.
With four businesses under their belt and four kids aged from 14 to 19 years, the couple have been fortunate to be able to secure great, loyal staff members, a few of which have been with their businesses since the beginning.
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"Our core team of staff has been strong right from the start and we find it adds a great dynamic when you have an international staff member on the books as well," Mr Pianta said.
"Our Southern Roasting Co manager Rui (Ruiglent Tuc) is from Italy and he has that hospitality and coffee background, so he was a perfect fit.
"We both do a bit of roasting for our coffee beans, but he takes charge with a lot of that.
"Our staff are certainly the strength of our business."
While Southern Roasting Co coffee beans are distributed to about 15 businesses including cafes, wineries and bed and breakfasts, all within about 100 kilometres of Manjimup, Mr Pianta said his next goal was to push their coffee beans into the cafe wholesale market.
