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About this seller
Happyfield was an instant café classic when it opened at the end of 2020. The butter yellow good-vibes diner transformed the complexion of its neighbourhood, Haberfield, and single-handedly changed Sydney’s breakfast habits overnight. What do you do next after all that success? You do it again. With the recent opening of Happy Shop next door, owners Jesse Orleans and Chris Theodosi are proving that they’ve got plenty of happiness left to spread around Haberfield – and Sydney.
From left, Co-founder Jesse Orleans and Co-founder Chris Theodosi.
Delve into Happyfield's success story and hospitality secrets
Q&A
When did you realise Happyfield was going to succeed?
Jesse Orleans, Co-founder:
Day one.
Chris Theodosi, Co-founder:
Yeah, the first three days – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – was super busy. But then the following week, the Tuesday was busy and the Wednesday was busy, and I walked into the kitchen and said “Jess, I think we’ve created something here.” So it was pretty quick and then it just never slowed down.
Jesse Orleans:
We always thought: “okay, maybe it’s going to slow down now.” Like, the hype is going to be over. But it’s never really stopped.
How has Haberfield changed since you came to the neighbourhood?
Chris Theodosi
A lot of businesses that were already here – like the deli and the cakes shops – have felt a new life, because we’re definitely bringing people from outside Haberfield. The suburbs has like five and a half thousand people, and between Happyfield and Happy Shop we serve probably 4000 people a week. And they’re all shopping and discovering what else Haberfield has to offer, so it’s kind of revitalised the little business district, which is great.
Happyfield is famous for its pancakes – how much maple syrup do you go through a week?
Jesse Orleans:
It’s a lot.
Chris Theodosi:
You don’t want to see the invoices. We spend more on maple syrup than we do on coffee.
Jesse Orleans:
We go through about seven 24-can boxes a week. And every can is 540 millilitres.
Chris Theodosi:
So about 72 litres of first-press maple syrup – straight from Quebec – a week.
Jesse Orleans:
It’s crazy.
Chris Theodosi:
And it ain’t cheap.
But the breakfast stars over at Happy Shop aren’t pancakes, they’re beignets. How did they land on the menu?
Jesse Orleans:
It’s funny, before we even had Happyfield, Chris was like, “Can you make me beignets?” And I’d never had them.
Chris Theodosi:
I was obsessed with them because of the movie Chef. And I thought if someone does beignets before us, I’m going be really upset. So after a few months, Jesse made them as a special.
Jesse Orleans:
And we’d do them every few months, and people were starting to like them. They’d sell out every time.
Chris Theodosi:
So when we finally built out a separate kitchen for Happy Shop, it was only natural for us to put them on the menu. Plus they’re famous in New Orleans and Jesse’s name is Jesse Orleans, so it made sense. Mr Orleans’ famous beignets.
Is that the idea behind Happy Shop? To do things you can’t over at Happyfield?
Chris Theodosi:
Like Happyfield, everything always starts with the food. We’d been doing specials for years at Happyfield and there were a lot of items that we wish we could serve more often or serve on weekends. Because it’s one thing to serve 20 chopped cheeses on a Wednesday and another thing to do 100 on a Sunday.
Jesse Orleans:
So we created a second shop that houses all those specials.
Do people ever get confused about how to differentiate the two?
Chris Theodosi:
Having two venues on the same street has been slightly confusing. People tell us they don’t know if we also own Happy Shop. And I’m like “It’s definitely us, we’d be mortal enemies with someone who opened a place called Happy Shop two doors down from Happyfield.” But yeah, it’s still very new. There’s a lot of educating customers, and we keep Happy Shop menus on hand at Happyfield, so when there’s a wait there we can go “Hey we’ve got our new venue two doors down. Here’s the menu for both. Go check it out, it’s super cool.”
Jesse Orleans:
Yeah, the main difference is Happyfield is more of a sit-down, table service sort of experience. Whereas Happy Shop is more quick service – order at the counter, we’ll call your name when your food’s ready.
How have you approached expansion in hospo?
Chris Theodosi:
In terms our growth and expansion, we’ve never been like “We need to open this many venues, we need to be opening a venue a year.” We like what we’re doing right now and taking opportunity as they come. With Happyfield, a 56-seat diner, we were getting pounded every week and weekend, so when an extra room came up – which we made the Happy Room – we snapped it up and it took us to 84 seats. Which helped for a little bit, but then –
Jesse Orleans:
We won the award.
Chris Theodosi:
We won the Café of the Year award and then the problem we’d just solved had doubled. So when the opportunity came up to expand again on the same street we decided to open Happy Shop.
I think little details matter in the hospitality business just because those small details are the things that customers pick up on the most. It's like just greeting them at the door or like for us at Happyfield, we have the pop vinyls, it's like a talking point or just getting like the yellow aesthetic on the coffee cups or the coffee machine.
Why is it important to have a point of difference as a hospitality venue?
Jesse Orleans:
It’s important not to be like everybody else but with that, you also have to be authentic to yourself. To tap into what makes you happy; what you’re passionate about. And that translates itself into your business.
Chris Theodosi:
There’s new businesses opening every week. So if you don’t have a reason for people to keep returning to you, they’re just going to go somewhere closer or to the next best thing. But if you can hit them with a bit more, with a feeling, chances are they’ll keep coming back. For me and Jesse, I think starting with the concept was really important.
So it’s better business to do what’s true to you instead of chasing trends?
Jesse Orleans, Co-founder:
It’s a zero-sum game because first of all, you don’t know if you can do it better than the other person. And also – it’s a trend, right? So today it can be fun and amazing, but tomorrow things can shift. And then what do you do? I feel like if you have a solid vision of what you want to create, what kind of food you want to cook, then you can base everything else off that and it makes things a lot easier.
Chris Theodosi, Co-founder:
Chasing trends for us personally isn’t the best way to go about business. If you’re chasing the new viral trend, chances are there’ll be a 100 other places doing it. If you’re creating something a little bit harder to get, that’s going to be more special.
Happyfield’s over five years old now. How can a business keep the momentum going once it’s no longer the new kid on the block?
Jesse Orleans, Co-founder:
Once a business is a bit more established and they’re no longer the new kid on the block, they can just really focus on what they do best: tightening up the food, tightening up the service, paying attention to more of the smaller details and trying to be consistent in everything you do.
Chris Theodosi, Co-founder:
If you’re lucky enough to have that initial wave of customers when you first open, then you should always be looking to improve with each and every service.
Jesse Orleans, Co-founder:
For businesses to keep the momentum going just really remember what got you to where you are: the core customers that came from the beginning, those staff members that show up every single day, the principles you set out when you first opened.
Chris Theodosi, Co-founder:
Jesse and I have been here for five years, but we still act like the new kids on the block.
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