End of an era: Store for sale after treasured local cookware institution closes
If you’re a cooking enthusiast in Melbourne, chances are you’ve shopped at Scullerymade in Malvern.
For the past four decades, the cookware store on High Street has been the go-to for generations of home cooks and renowned Melbourne eateries, from Attica to Chin Chin and Baker Bleu.
“We appealed to a very broad customer base, which I think was probably our strength,” says owner Susie Hawes. “They travelled from all over.”
Fueled by a passion for cooking and backed by her father and brother, Hawes and her partner Howard Gibbons first opened Scullerymade on Glenferrie Road in 1978. Quickly outgrowing the space, they moved to their long-term location at 1400 High Street in 1981.
“It was originally a carpet factory,” Hawes says. “Howard put on a whole new front to the shop.”
Determined to stock only “high-quality, long-lasting products”, which were hard to come by in Australia at the time, the two made yearly trips to Europe to source cookware from France, Germany and Italy.
“We’d basically get on a plane with a shopping list and people we wanted to seek out, and we’d run around for 10 days over there and jet back again,” she says. “It was hard work.”
Their hard work was rewarded with a loyal customer base, with Scullerymade even catering to the grandchildren of some of its original customers in its later years. Hawes says the only criteria they had for their employees was that “they had to have a love for cooking”, resulting in a “lovely atmosphere” where staff and customers openly shared their knowledge.
“Customers on the other side of the counter used to stand there and offer advice to the customer standing next to them,” she says. “We were there because we all loved it.”
Some of the store’s best sellers included French cast iron cookware, knives from Germany, and stainless steel cookware made by a family company in Belgium. While she’s seen food trends “ebb and flow” over the years, Hawes says the products have stood the test of time.
“[Customers] are still using the same pieces that they bought from us in the late ’70s and early ’80s.”
After 44 years, Scullerymade closed its doors last year. The building, with its distinctive red facade, hit the market earlier this month.
Agent Nick Breheny, a director at GormanKelly, says the initial response to the listing has been very good. He expects it to appeal to owner-occupiers or investors, with the option to occupy the space as is or renovate it.
“It’s a very versatile building,” he says. “To anyone within the food industry or people who like fine dining and cooking, it would be very well known.”
The 448-square-metre site, which is being offered with vacant possession, includes the retail space as well as a rear warehouse with roller-door access from High Street.
Expressions of interest close on March 9, with the property expected to sell in the low- to mid-$2 million range.
“High Street has been the most fantastic street to be on,” says Hawes, who saw many shops come and go around them over the decades. “It’s the end of an era.”
