Landmark Bronte cafe tipped to fetch more than $2.8 million
One of the landmarks of Sydney’s Bronte Beach, a café opposite the surf that’s operated for the past 27 years under the same owner, has finally been put up for sale.
“I’ve been there a long time now,” says Jinfang Ye, better known as the eponymous owner of Jenny’s. “I am getting quite tired and I am quite old. I want to go and travel and see the rest of Australia before my feet and hands get too old.”
The café has become something of an institution on the tiny strip with just nine retail premises, where the tiny 46-square-metre fish and chip shop a few doors away sold at the end of March for $2,385,000, setting a new Bronte property record of $51,847 per square metre.
The cafe is one of only nine shops along the beachfront. Photo: Supplied
Jenny’s, covering an area of 110 square metres, is expected to sell for between $2.8 million and $3 million at auction on June 1.
Agent Michael Buium of Ray White Commercial city south said the café, with a single dwelling attached, is a prime piece of commercial real estate.
“Jenny’s been there for so long now, and she’s decided finally to retire,” he said.
She’s already sold the business and now she’s selling the freehold, the actual shop. The lease on the place is worth $170,000 a year in income.
“It’s a great café in a beautiful location in an iconic beach suburb. It’ll make a great investment, or business, for someone.”
The strata-titled shop and dwelling, at 483-485 Bronte Road, has uninterrupted views of the sand and ocean and has been a successful café and food business for 26 years. It comes with a full commercial kitchen which includes a grease trap, exhaust fan and coolroom as well as a food permit, and has a five-year business lease in place, with a five-year option to extend.
The owner, Jinfang Ye, is selling after 27 years. Photo: Supplied
The premises additionally has a one-bedroom unit at the rear of the property with a separate entrance, and storage area on title. It is being sold in conjunction with Patrick Cosgrove, associate director of Raine & Horne Double Bay.
Jingang, or Jenny as she’s better known, said she had poured her heart and soul into the café, and she would miss it terribly.
“It’s right on the beachfront, it’s just heaven,” said Jenny, 65, a widow with a 38-year-old son who lives overseas. “It’s beautiful in the summer, and just as beautiful in the winter. I will be sad to go but I have been working so hard, 24/7 for so many years, I need to finish now.”
She said the greatest blow would be saying goodbye to all her regular customers who she had got to know so well over the years. “I met them and became friends then, in turn, got to know their one child, then their second and third,” she laughs. “They are all very nice people. It will be sad not to see them every day.”
