We love taking the office on the road and finding a great little eatery to work from and we’ve discovered a few worth sharing. Our needs are pretty simple; we take our laptops tethered to the phones or tablets to get good internet connection and set about working. We find that ‘free wifi’ services can be pretty slow and we’ve got enough data anyway so we use our own devices.
I’ll review each venue in regards to what we feel is important to being able to work comfortably off site including table size, noise level, food and coffee quality and general ambience.
NB: If you’re starting a small business and want to know how you can afford to do what we do on a tight budget then read it about here.
Cafe Bean Victoria Street Bunbury.
We picked a table in the open windows to get a good view of the street. As soon as we opened the laptops, the emails come flooding in, the phones started ringing and people in the street stopped to chat through the window. We must have looked important!
Tables: Big enough for two laptops, coffees and a note book.
Food: Coffee was good.
Noise: Can be quite noisy in the window area though.
Back Beach Cafe and Restaurant.
As you head in, ask to be seated at the far left end of the restaurant. It has the best views of the back beach and usually there’s only a few people there so you can work away without too much noise and distraction. The staff are down to earth and heaps of fun.
Tables: Good size, enough for 2 laptops and the big chef’s share plate.
Food: The Chef’s share plate at $35 is good value.
Noise: Fairly quiet.
Location: Back Beach Bunbury, Ocean Drive
Mojos Restaurant.
Mojos is a favourite haunt of ours and we love the guys that own and run it. Great spot for a quick brainstorm, glass of wine or a coffee. The ‘M’ Room is a good place to book for small meetings, workshops or brainstorming sessions.
Tables: Pick the 4 seat tables or one of the booths. Plenty of room for your laptop and a glass of wine.
Food: Great!
Noise: Noise levels inside are good, but we’ve yet to try the sea container out the front yet.
Location: Grand Cinemas complex Bunbury.
Tasty Edibles Greenbushes
It’s worth the drive to Greenbushes (on the way to Bridgetown) to chill out at one of the huge tables and spend a while working on your project. We worked on one of my kids books there last year and found it to be quite a creative space to work. Plus the owners are awesome!
Tables: HUGE! Lots of room to spread out your sketch pads and create!
Food: Amazing. Everything is cooked and baked onsite, including the sourdough bread.
Noise: It was quiet when were there so don’t know what it’s like peak hour.
Location: 38 Blackwood rd, 6254 Greenbushes
The Hollow Bar and Grill
We held a casual training session with a couple Account Executives from a local radio station at the revamped Hollow Bar and Grill. It was a bit before lunch when we turned up and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. There are lots of places that you could work from, including the picnic tables out the front (in shade for most of the day), the tall tables in the sports bar or the tables in the restaurant towards the back.
Tables: Most of the tables were big enough for laptops and a plate of food.
Food: We had the Seafood Asian salad and the Seafood Linguine. Good quality.
Noise: The music was good and not too loud. I can imagine it would be crazy on weekends though!
Location: 135 Ocean Dr, Bunbury WA 6230
Finally
If you know of any other good venues for us to review, leave a comment below.
Remember when you make work enjoyable, you make life enjoyable.
Josh and Andy
