Ana Koutoulas // The Glass Onion Society
Revitalising a community’s social fabric was never a life goal for young café owner Ana Koutoulas. With resilience akin to a tardigrade (google it) and an intuitive creativity for interior spaces, it’s no wonder that when The Glass Onion Society opened its doors as an espresso bar and vintage clothing boutique in late spring 2011, the long forgotten town of Long Jetty was put on the map. Five years on, ‘The Jetty’ is a hub for creatives and entrepreneurialism, with a thriving commercial strip of cafes, boutiques and unique, independent retailers. Ana also works on the side as a stylist for many a collab and is a reluctant guru when it comes to fashion. She sets her own pace when it comes to trends and harnesses her personal style with chameleon-like instinct — she dresses to suit her own mood. It is this ‘go your own way’ mantra that inspires her muse-worthy-ness and is also proximate to our hearts at Bohemian Traders. I had the privilege of speaking with Ana about her alternative approach to navigating the small-business-owner landscape, why she loves dressing people and how she stays motivated.
Photography: Jozef Oldfield
Words: Jessica Oldfield
JO: Tell me a bit about ‘The Onion’s’ story and how it came to be.
AK: In 2011 I went on a holiday overseas. I travelled around London, Ireland Scotland, Wales and ended up in Greece. I visited some family there and while I was away I just decided I wanted to open up my own place. After that 2 months of travel I decided that was exactly what I was going to do. I gathered a lot of inspiration, while I was away, from different places we visited. Two days after I got back I found the location I wanted to do it in.
JO: What was it specifically about Long Jetty that made you want to do a café here?
AK: Well, for one: it was really cheap and all we could afford. And two: because it was a bit of a dead spot really. It was in between the ocean and the lake and there wasn’t really anything happening there. And I guess my partner Ben and I really hoped that we might be able to help revive it if we gave people something to stop for. ‘Cause really it was a bit of a ghost town that people just passed through, which was a shame because Long Jetty has a lot of cool old buildings and geographically is in a beautiful location.
JO: Some research I’ve done lately suggested that a community’s top three most visited, or used, places are schools, hospitals and cafes and I was thinking how all of these are quite vital in their own way, and cafes might seem like the least important one on that list but they offer a meeting place for people to connect. How has it felt to grow something like that in Long Jetty? Was building a community ‘meeting place’ part of the motivation to start something like this?
AK: Well for us there wasn’t any cafés here, so we did see the need for that. However, I think because Ben and I had grown up on the Central Coast our whole lives, and a lot of our friends were constantly leaving town to go create something interesting somewhere else, because the Central coast is renowned for being a bit boring and there’s not a lot to do, our mission was to create something worth hanging around for that we could enjoy sitting in as well. Of course hospitals are a necessity for a community… and schools, but I do think being social and having a place that people can meet and enjoy with each other is a huge part of growing a community, definitely. And in this particular suburb there wasn’t that and the suburb wasn’t growing. It has been quite astonishing seeing how many people also identified that need and appreciated that we did open up. We’ve been busy since the day we opened our doors in 2011.
JO: So The Glass Onion is 5 years old?
AK: It’ll be 5 years in November.
JO: I know in the beginning it was just you and Ben working here, how many staff do you have now?
AK: We have 22 staff.
JO: Have you ever owned a business prior to The Glass Onion?
AK: No I’ve never owned another business. I did have my own little, self- funded, well, I suppose it was a business in a sense. I would make jewellery and sold quite a bit to boutiques across the Central Coast for a time there and that was really enjoyable and I loved being creative and getting my work out there. But really other than that, no.
JO: Did you ever do a business course?
AK: No. I actually did enrol in a business course and then a month later I just opened the business. I never did the course in the end.
JO: And paid for the course? [laughs]
AK: And paid for it. Non-refundable, in fact. Quite regrettable, really. [laughs]
JO: Most people when they’re going to start a business take the logical route, you know, they might do a business course, do up a business plan, crunch numbers. Is that, in your opinion, where people go wrong with start-ups? They try to go too logical with it all? Rather than moving sideways into something, they take the long road.
AK: I don’t think there is a right way to do it. I think we did do it unconventionally. I had an idea. I went travelling. I felt inspired. And I made the idea happen within three months. From getting off the plane, to finding the building, to opening our doors it was about a three month period and we’ve basically been making it up as we go along for the last five years and I don’t think that that is necessarily a good way to do business, or the right way, but it is my way. And it has worked to a degree and I feel like we have achieved something. Maybe not all of our goals, but we’ve certainly achieved a lot of them. I kind of don’t mind doing it that way because it keeps things interesting and it means there’s no right or wrong.
Strappy Singlet in White // Resort Monaco Maxi Skirt
“I don’t think there is a right way to do it. I think we did do it unconventionally. I had an idea. I went travelling. I felt inspired.”
JO: Very true.
Sitting here in the café I can see all the beautiful furniture and the art and all the interiors, which are obviously your touch and your creativity, is that side of things, the creativity, harder to prioritise when you have the ‘running’ of the business to maintain?
AK: Look I think its 50:50. They go hand-in-hand. Running the business can be really challenging, but I think when it does get quite challenging, the best way for me to have a breather from the business side of things is to be creative. I’ve really tried to not let that side [the business] stifle my creativity. So, after I’ve done a days work and all the potentially mundane or boring things, I call them “my chores”, I might stay back after hours and redecorate the café, or rearrange everything, or get creative somehow.
JO: Aside from your passion to create spaces that have a nice feel to them and people can enjoy, I know that clothing and fashion is also a passion of yours, and that you love dressing people. What draws you to it?
AK: I love seeing the enjoyment in the person when they feel good in what they’re wearing, and a lot of people know what they like but they don’t know how to necessarily put it together. Or they don’t even know what they like but they want to feel a certain way and I just get an immense amount of enjoyment in bringing that out in someone. You know, they might want to look fun and flirty or they want their creativity to come out but they’re feeling quite drab. I really enjoy helping them achieve that — that feeling that they’re after, helping them express it through their clothing.
JO: So you think there’s a psychological link between how people feel and what they wear?
AK: Definitely. I think even in terms of things like Colour Therapy and the colours that we wear and how that makes us feel. Or we’re feeling a certain way and therefore we reach for a particular coloured shirt subconsciously. You know, as an example, you really want to wear that pink dress and you don’t quite know why. I definitely think that all those things are completely intertwined.
JO: I got to have a quick squiz at your wardrobe.
AK: Did you? [laughs]
JO: I did. It’s quite eclectic I would say. And I wanted to ask, how would you describe your style?
AK: I truly don’t know that I have a style. I really don’t. I think it is eclectic, there’s definitely a lot of vintage, sequins…
JO: A lot of handbags…
AK: Yeah, there’s all kinds of things. I really enjoy mixing the eras together. Not necessarily trying to conform to any particular style, but I guess based on what we were talking about before, in terms of the psychology of why you wear the things you wear, for me, I base it on what my mood is each day. One day maybe I do feel like being girly and the next day maybe I feel like looking a bit homeless or then maybe I want to look like a band “groupie”, or sophisticated, or like a house wife. I don’t’ know, I just like dressing however it is I feel on that day and hence need an eclectic wardrobe to achieve those “looks”.
JO: I’d like to see the house wife. [laughs]
AK: You’ll have to come to my house. [laugh]
JO: Obviously running your own small business, well it’s not that small anymore I guess, with 22 staff, it’s becoming quite the monster, how do you stay motivated to keep going?
AK: I think the fact that we’ve continually grown and progressed and evolved and morphed and really, just changed every day, every week, every month, every year. I think change is the important key here. That is why I can still stay motivated, because I always have a new idea, a new focus on what it is that I’m reaching for and whether that is to change the furniture or change the menu or encourage staff to give the best service they can, whatever it is, that change certainly keeps me motivated.
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