Keep knickknack cafe open

Hi there! We’re David and Waan Bransgrove. We’re owners of Knickknack Cafe - a hidden gem takeaway coffee and lunch spot in the corner of Liverpool and Oxford Street, Sydney. We’ve been running since 2015, serving local office crowds and residents with our heart warming food (we make literally everything here, too!), drinks, and cheeky sense of humour. Our customers have constantly told us that it’s different here at Knickknack - just how we wanted it to be - and that you can’t get food like this anywhere else.

Unfortunately, even before COVID-19 hit in 2020, we were already feeling the effects of it in late 2019. The Sydney CBD changed - the city was a ghost town with hardly anyone coming into work. Most of our regulars stopped coming, and just like that, our income fell significantly. 

Even with Government help, it’s still isn’t enough to sustain the rent of the shop, as the volume of customers is just not the same. We strive to get through every day without staff because we can’t afford them, which has left us to do it on our own for two years now. With Christmas around the corner, we’re going to keep the shop open and work through the holidays. Even though most people will be away, a handful of customers a week may be better than not opening at all. 

We have hit the worst time of our lives, constantly fearing to be locked out of our shop - our livelihood - as we have to keep paying rent in full and on time (the rental situation has not been kind to us). Creating a GoFundMe page was the last thing we ever thought of doing, but as we are scraping the barrel and taking out of our life savings, we thought this could be our last chance to save the shop. 

And so, we ask you, for your kind donations to keep a local cafe alive in a landscape where many beloved cafes and restaurants have shut for the same exact reasons. Honestly, we are shocked and humbled that we are still open throughout the pandemic, but we know it’s only a matter of time. We ask to raise 25,000 ,which is three months worth of our rent and expenses  just to ease this bottleneck and get us back on our feet to carry on.