There are not many cafes in Canberra that can say that their busiest time of day is from 10pm until midnight.
But that's all part of being one of the few cafes in Canberra that are open until midnight. It's a business model that is working perfectly for the owners of Canberra Cafe and Burgers in Belconnen and Greenway and Farrah Cafe and Takeaway.
So well in fact that they also plan on applying opening times to the recently opened Monaro Bites in Queanbeyan once it has become more established.
"I've been in Canberra about 12 years and before that, I was in Melbourne where you can find the places that sell coffee late but there are not many in Canberra," co-owner Kapil Arora said.
"So we always wanted to stay open until midnight. We didn't in the beginning because we needed enough staff and people willing to do that.
"But now we have staff who only want to do that late shift. They hate doing the morning shift - they just want to sleep late. And we have others who only want to work during the day. So it works out well for us."
It all started in the middle of COVID - at a time many would have said opening a hospitality business was ill-advised - when the first Canberran Cafe and Burgers opened in Tuggeranong. But it meant that the team prioritised the delivery side of the cafe should there be another lockdown - something that helped when opening their Belconnen store.
"The Belconnen location is a bit tricky when it comes to parking. There is a carpark directly across from us but it's paid parking until 5.30pm which puts people off," Arora said.
"So we always have deliveries throughout the day and then after 5.30pm you'll have people coming in because everywhere else is closed for coffee.
"Cops come in for their coffees but you'll also see 10 drivers waiting constantly. It's all the people in the area - people working at the hospital, shift workers, security workers and students over at the University of Canberra and even at the Australian National University. Students usually have late nights studying or whatnot and need food."
When it comes to food, the menu is a lot of crowd favourites. There are $15 chicken wings with four different sauces to choose from and a $20 steak sandwich with beetroot and fried egg.
And of course, with burgers mentioned in the name, there are 11 different burgers including the American cheeseburger and barbecue pulled pork. All of which can come with a side of what are quite possibly the most moreish chips in Canberra.
"We do everything from scratch," Arora said.
"Chicken parmigiana is probably the most popular, especially for delivery. But we do everything on the menu for delivery.
"The southern fried chicken burger is also pretty popular."
With four cafes under their belt, the Canberra Cafe team isn't slowing down.
They've already got their sights set on Gungahlin, they're just waiting for the right spot to open up.
"We're constantly looking for new locations," Arora said.
"So far, with the delivery apps, we can reach to Crace, Harrison and Mitchell but we don't reach to the back area, so we're looking for something for that area.
"We're trying to cover all of the suburbs."
