No-one told them life was gonna be this way, but sisters Trish Murray and Kristy Marshall have just opened their dream coffee and food van business in Seymour.
On Saturday, October 12, Kings Perk opened to the public, serving coffee and hot food on the go.
Ms Murray said the opening was surprisingly busy, especially with the Goulburn River Trail parkrun happening on the same day.
“It was a lot of community support,” she said.
“A lot of people out walking their dogs, going for walks, just popping in and getting coffee.
“They didn't realise we had food at the start, so to realise that we were a food van as well as a coffee van (was great).”
Kings Perk had a busy opening day. It opens at 5am to make sure everything is ready to go, and customers won’t have to wait long for their orders.
“So many people have told us that the town needed something like this,” Ms Murray said.
“Kristy has worked in the town in the food industry, so she knew what was lacking and what she could bring to it.”
Kings Perk was inspired by the American TV sitcom Friends and Ms Marshall had the idea of incorporating the show’s coffee shop Central Perk and Seymour’s Kings Park.
When asked what they would do if Matt LeBlanc, who played Joey in the show, found himself in front of the coffee van, this is what Ms Marshall said.
“We’d say, ‘how you brewin’?’,” she said.
Kings Perk’s slogan ‘How you brewin?’ is a play on Joey’s tagline ‘how you doin?’
Kings Perk, being a family business, also incorporated the memory of Ms Marshall and Ms Murray’s late mother in the logo.
“Our mum passed away when we were very young and we both have connected that our mum visits us through a dragonfly,” Ms Murray said.
“She’s always around, so she deserves to be in it,” Ms Marshall said.
Ms Marshall used to manage the deli at Seymour’s IGA in Anzac Ave, while Ms Murray lives and works in Tasmania.
“This has been in my head for maybe three or four years that this is what I wanted to do,” Ms Marshall said.
“One day, I just thought, ‘you know what, I think I can.’”
“I've worked in the food industry for years and years ... cafés, owned shops before, so Kristy and I just went, ‘Okay, let's buy a van and let's do it’,” Ms Murray said.
“Kristy lives locally, I live in Tasmania, so I will fly in fly out.”
“They call me the fly in fly out Auntie, so I'll be over probably one week out of every five.”
Ms Marshall’s daughter, Ebony Marshall, is their barista, as well as their social media manager.
Ebony was behind all the promo and hype around Kings Perk’s social media before the van even opened.
“It’s so important. I feel like that the majority of people are coming from social media,” she said.
“Word of the mouth is a very big thing in this kind of town, but I feel like, especially people coming from like other towns, or people passing through social media is a big thing.”
Ebony said Ms Marshall and Ms Murray’s biggest vision is that they understand that there's so many hard workers in the town and the thing they wanted to give back to the town is their time.
“That's why everything is ready because a lot of people have 30 minutes on their lunch break, and they don’t want to wait 30 minutes. They’re in and out of here in two or three minutes,” Ebony said.
“The difference is nothing processed or packaged. Everything's freshly cooked, but convenient.”
Kings Perk all-rounder Roxy Johnstone, unfortunately lost her voice before the interview, but mentioned that working with the team of four has been great so far.
The Kings Perk Team said they were truly grateful for the community’s support.
“This is our fifth day of business, and we've got people with their loyalty cards that have had it stamp more than five times,” Ms Murray said.
“They've been twice a day some days, so there's people nearly going to get their free coffee, and we've only been open five days, which is awesome.”
Kings Perk encourages the community to keep an eye on their upcoming specials and their social media, as they will be moving the menu around on people’s requests.