FREO ON THE MENU? – PART TWO

NEWS FEATURE: For the past 10 years, StreetWise has worked the ‘Cappuccino Strip’ with traders who, particularly after COVID-19, changed the way they did business in Fremantle.
Staff shortfalls, rising rents and now fuel costs, homelessness on the front door. If the business ecosystem as the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce describes it changes, the ‘Strip’ changes. And it has. But at what cost?
The Strip is iconic. It is a name many StreetWise readers have grown up with. Known and promoted internationally. As reported last week, ‘Freo’s Iconic Cafe Strip Loses Shine – Part One’, the historic destination is a major drawcard for visitors attracted by coffee, food and entertainment, art and heritage.
But should it be renamed given a lack of cafes and the wave of new bars and hotels planned and being built on the Strip in the next few years?
The City says GST-registered businesses grew 11 per cent from 2020 to 2024, led by sole traders and firms in professional services, real estate and health, “11 additional businesses now operating in the city centre”.
While new faces are welcome, traders told StreetWise it is the businesses replacing the recently sold and those up for sale that will change the Strip from an international coffee strip to a ‘booze boulevard’.
“The Cappuccino Strip will become a booze strip,” Portorosa Fremantle owner Joe Napoli said after wining and dining Italian food lovers since 2008. He sold the business to his chef this year.
“Fremantle has become a drinking hole. The Strip doesn’t have that feel anymore. It’s just, whatever. When I first came to Freo, I started a CBD association that was successful for a while. Now it’s each to their own.”
He said the City should focus on resurrecting retail, clean streets (including the Strip) and offer better parking options for businesses, families and visitors who want to spend time here without blowing the budget.
Celebrating 20 years and 40 issues of Menu Magazine, editor Scott Arnold-Eyers told StreetWise: “If you go to High Street or South Fremantle, there are some great places to have coffee. It would be good to have more coffee places on the strip.”
He agreed the number of businesses leaving Freo including the Strip is telling, but inevitable for a food and entertainment destination that has changed since the first espressos appeared on outdoor tables and chairs.
“They will modernise the strip. They will do it up and it will start to look a bit like Claremont.”
Asked whether the ‘cafe strip’ needed a name change given the number of new pubs and clubs in the pipeline, Arnold-Eyers said: “It’s a debate, I would say no, but logic would say yes. I would say no because it is well known for that. People refer to it as the Cappuccino Strip all around the world, so the question is when visitors come here are they going to be disappointed? I think they would be. The council should try and get more cafes on the strip.”
He said cafes and restaurants open and close in Perth every day. But chefs and staff trained in food and hospitality are still in short supply. And in the face of rising living costs, interest rates and inflation and other expenses including fuel and transport, businesses have either innovated or perished as Fremantle witnessed during and after COVID-19.

Transformational?

MEXICAN Kitchen closed last year after 45 years on the Strip. Sailing for Oranges closed last year after two years. Hungry Jacks closed in 2018.
Portorosa sold in January this year after nearly 20 years, Sandrino and La Sosta have changed ownership and Capri is on the market after 72 years in business.
 And after having battled in a galaxy far away since 1981, the Timezone site sold last year to Silverleaf Investments for $7.65 million.
The Property Council of Australia says the entertainment asset offers, “secure income and significant redevelopment potential, supporting mixed-use, residential, boutique hospitality and other outcomes”.
North Fremantle chef Mark Woodcock says Fremantle has the ‘bones’ to be the greatest destination in the southern hemisphere, “but the current state of the city is a slap in the face to families and business owners and ratepayers”.
He said if Fremantle council wanted people to return, another ‘art installation’ or seedling plantings or flower beds is not the solution. It’s embarrassing.
“Families shouldn’t have to dodge abuse and threats. Remove the anti-social behaviour, the open drug dealing, and the ‘no-go’ zones. Repair the crumbling curbs, potholed roads and cracked footpaths that make the city look like a relic of the past.”
Mark said the city must stop gouging visitors: “We need more parking and, more importantly, affordable parking. People won’t pay premium prices to walk through filth.”
He said no amount of marketing can fix a city that feels unsafe: “It’s time to clean it up, fix the roads and bring the families back.”
Cushman & Wakefield director Ben Younger said: “Fremantle is a cultural anchor. For over four decades, it’s drawn families, tourists and locals to the heart of South Terrace.”
Other projects expected to increase visitor accommodation and local foot traffic include Silverleaf and W1 Hospitality’s ‘first five-star stay’ in Freo, Garde Hotel (83 rooms); the Forrests’ property arm Fiveight’s $35 million six-storey Spicers Hotel (150 rooms, restaurant, bar & cafe); and Patrick Prendiville’s four-storey Urban Haven pod hotel (193 beds including 162 ‘pods’).
The HJ site will be transformed into a $6.5 million sports bar, with a brewery and theatre with open-air silos, terraced seating and accessible rooftop.
The heritage-listed former Sailing for Oranges site will be demolished to make way for the new Urban hotel, the first of its kind in WA, with bar and communal dining, laundry and bathroom areas with 24-hour reception.
The former Fremantle Technical College and Old Girls School site is expected to reopen this year. In 2024, Garrett Prendiville told StreetWise as loppers removed trees from the corner of Norfolk and Parry streets that the new hotel would provide a much-needed boost to the Cappuccino Strip. By adding another boutique tavern?
The Spicers and Lylo sites and others in the redevelopment pipeline promise to bring more bars, clubs and restaurants. There will be no shortage of food, booze and beds on a historic strip renowned internationally for its cafe culture.
With only Gino’s and San Churro left standing, the once-bustling cafe strip can no longer claim the title of ‘Cappuccino Strip’ when bars outnumber cafes.

Additional stories at www.streetwisemedia.com.au.