Honi Soit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • CAPA Board Passes Motion Removing SUPRA Voting Rights 
    • The momentary victory of mass politics: reflections on Kissinger and Australia
    • “We are freedom fighters”: pro-Palestinian protestors march amidst end to seven-day ceasefire
    • An invitation in: SCA’s ‘New Contemporaries’
    • NTEU to delay new fixed-term contract limits that fail to cover higher-education workers
    • Mohammed Shami: The Muslim cricketer who carried an Islamophobic nation to the Men’s Cricket World Cup Final
    • Moving beyond the theoretical: Privacy law reform in Australia
    • Digital privacy, missing voices, and cookies: IAPP Summit 2023
    • About
    • Print Edition
    • Advertise
    • Locations
    • Contact
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok
    Honi SoitHoni Soit
    Thursday, December 7
    • News
    • Analysis
    • Culture
    • Opinion
    • University
    • Features
    • Perspective
    • Investigation
    • Reviews
    Honi Soit
    Home»Culture

    What happened to WellCo?

    Zoe talked to one person and called it an investigation
    By Zoe Stojanovic-HillJuly 31, 2018 Culture 3 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    At the start of the month, WellCo Cafe mysteriously closed.

    WellCo, an institution on the south end of Glebe Point Road, visited by USyd students dependent on coffee and cake to even approach the thought of studying, shut its cute red wooden door on 1 July.

    “WellCo Cafe will be out of business after Sunday…Thank you for everything,” read a chalk-drawn sign out front.

    Michael Koziol, a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald and former editor of Honi, wrote a eulogy for the Cafe on 8 July.

    “It will be honoured here, in print, if it’s the last thing I do,” Koziol wrote, in an outpouring of nostalgia.

    “Well Connected Cafe opened in the mid-90s as Sydney’s first internet cafe,” Koziol explained.

    By the time I started at USyd, it wasn’t particularly well connected—to the internet or to the present. The wifi was temperamental and, in a city where cafe culture is characterised by cold drip and cold brew, WellCo specialised in a bowl of chips.

    Mourners took to social media, starting teary threads in the comments section of the article.

    But then, a few days after Koziol published his piece, a new sign appeared.

    “Well Connected Cafe is closed for renovations for the next few weeks—looking forward to seeing you soon!”

    So what the fuck is going on with WellCo?

    Tom, the former owner, cleared the mystery up for me.

    Six months ago, he did a bit of research and found that he was paying roughly three times the market rent. Tom declined to say how much he was paying. John, the owner before Tom, who sold the business to Tom last September, said that he was paying approximately $3000/week plus GST, with a 5 per cent increase each year.

    When Tom raised the issue with the landlord, “he basically responded, ‘I don’t want to lower my rent because this place is my goldmine,’” Tom said.

    Tom didn’t want to sign onto a lease at that price for the contract term of three years, and the landlord wasn’t willing to renegotiate, so around three months ago Tom decided to sell the business.

    He said that he wanted to pass WellCo onto a new owner, “because we feel insecure on the street, because the people-flow on the street is not as stable as what it was before Broadway reopened” in August 2016. According to John, sales dropped by approximately 20 per cent after the $55 million revamp.

    Honi understands that Tom was in the process of selling the business when the landlord evicted him with no explanation. Neither Tom nor the landlord provided Honi with a clear explanation to as why the landlord made this decision.

    “He didn’t say anything initially to kick us out,” Tom said. In June, “we asked, ‘Can we get somebody else to sign the original contract for the three years?’ and he said, ‘No, I don’t want anybody else.’”

    “If we sell it that means WellCo will be passed on. And then he refused [to allow the sale]. And that means basically he wants to kick WellCo out of the market.”

    Honi understands that the building might open as a cafe, but it wouldn’t be WellCo.

    When I spoke to the landlord, an old man with hunched shoulders and different coloured eyes, he told me that WellCo had closed and that he didn’t know if it would reopen.

    “At the moment I can’t give any information,” he added, and closed the door.

    cafe glebe Well connected WellCo WellCo cafe

    Keep Reading

    Stories behind Disability Pride Sydney Festival

    It’s coded in the stars

    White Bay Power Station: Why local histories matter

    Hopping on The Milk Lorry: my family’s story in verse

    Hardcore, Hardcare? Lessons from the Fiddlehead moshpit

    The man with nine lives, an interview with Nathen Mazri

    Just In

    CAPA Board Passes Motion Removing SUPRA Voting Rights 

    December 7, 2023

    The momentary victory of mass politics: reflections on Kissinger and Australia

    December 6, 2023

    “We are freedom fighters”: pro-Palestinian protestors march amidst end to seven-day ceasefire

    December 4, 2023

    An invitation in: SCA’s ‘New Contemporaries’

    December 4, 2023
    Editor's Picks

    Puff, puff, pass: What does cannabis legalisation mean for student communities?

    November 1, 2023

    Privacy is not dead, yet

    October 26, 2023

    ‘A patchwork quilt of repression’: The disappearing right to protest in NSW

    October 17, 2023

    The lights are on, but no one’s home: inside USyd’s International House

    October 10, 2023
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok

    From the mines

    • News
    • Analysis
    • Higher Education
    • Culture
    • Features
    • Investigation
    • Comedy
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Misc

     

    • Opinion
    • Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Social
    • Sport
    • SRC Reports
    • Tech

    Admin

    • About
    • Editors
    • Send an Anonymous Tip
    • Write/Produce/Create For Us
    • Print Edition
    • Locations
    • Archive
    • Advertise in Honi Soit
    • Contact Us

    We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The University of Sydney – where we write, publish and distribute Honi Soit – is on the sovereign land of these people. As students and journalists, we recognise our complicity in the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous land. In recognition of our privilege, we vow to not only include, but to prioritise and centre the experiences of Indigenous people, and to be reflective when we fail to be a counterpoint to the racism that plagues the mainstream media.

    © 2023 Honi Soit
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.