The apple never falls too far from the tree. As much as he tried not to, Edwin Luo was always going to get into the family business: hospitality.
“My parents have run a restaurant since I was, like, a month old,” says the co-owner of Pillar Brewers, one of Burwood’s best coffee specialists. “I was born into it, but for most of my life, watching them toil away, it just felt like not a life that I really wanted.”
“So my brother and I promised ourselves we wouldn’t go anywhere near that – and now ironically here we are running a café.”
Brewing Something New for Burwood
Burwood should be thankful that Luo changed his mind. Even though it’s one of Sydney’s most exciting – and rapidly changing – neighbourhoods, just a few short years ago, specialty coffee-focused cafés were few and far between.
“It’s hard to find good coffee in the suburbs,” he says. “In a sort of poetic way we decided that we wanted to plant our feet in a place that didn’t have many roots in specialty coffee but still had a vibrant culture to it.”
Burwood has a rich night-time culture, fuelled by its abundance of – predominantly Chinese – restaurants. But while it bustles in the evenings, Luo spotted an opportunity to create something that the area could enjoy during the day.
“It can often be really hectic, especially at night-time,” he says. “We wanted to provide sort of a pitstop away from the craziness.”
Planting Pillar Brewers
In 2022, Pillar Brewers opened. But it took a while for it to become a pillar of the community.
“We’re sort of on the fringe of the fun part of Burwood,” says Luo. “It was difficult to get people through our doors because a lot of people didn’t even know we existed.”
Gradually, the area started to clue into the fact that these specialty coffee specialists were doing something special. And it wasn’t because of the sleek, modern but inviting design of the space. Or the coffee offering, with beans from around the world, presented on a menu that wouldn’t look out of place at a wine bar. Or even the food line-up – from pastries to some seriously good toasties – which was no slouch either.
More Than Coffee: Building Connection
According to Luo, the real reason Burwood finally clicked with Pillar was because of the way the café and its staff made them feel.
“Obviously we love coffee – we love it so much,” he says. “But at the end of the day coffee is a vehicle for us as people, our language.”
We wanted to create a space where people can feel relaxed and calm, where they can leave their troubles at the door and just feel welcome.”
Edwin Luo → Owner
Three years on, and Pillar’s loyal regulars can’t imagine what they would do – or where they would go – without it. Burwood got the daytime third place it didn’t know it needed. It took him a while to come back to it, but Luo couldn’t be happier to get back into the family business. Maybe some promises are meant to be broken.
Want to know more about how Pillar Brewery found the right neighbourhood to call home? Watch the Inner West episode of our video series Good Neighbours. ->
