Our story · Since 19 September 2022
It started
with a selfie.
Two friends, one café in Leichhardt and one spontaneous message that changed everything.
La Bottega opened its doors on 19 September 2022, but the story started a little earlier.
Before La Bottega, I owned a café in Potts Point, while Simon ran a backpackers nearby. We both sold our businesses around the same time, but always stayed in touch — usually over our regular dinners together.
One day, I came across a café in Leichhardt. I liked the idea, but I wasn't completely convinced I wanted to do it. At one of our dinners, I showed it to Simon.
The next day, without telling me, Simon came to see the place himself. He sent me a selfie of him sitting outside with Emilia and his dog, with a message:
“Great, I'll do it with you.”
And that was it.
We took over a café that needed a lot of love, rolled up our sleeves and completely transformed it into La Bottega.
What started with one spontaneous selfie has grown into the busy, colourful little piece of Italy that La Bottega is today — filled with good food, coffee, our team, our customers and plenty of personality.
And we're still having those dinners.