Bondi Local | Caroline Attwooll
Bondi Local | Caroline Attwooll
Caroline and her partner Johno run the local organic Earth Food Store. It’s a Bondi institution. Even with the arrival of the new Harris Farm Market in the Hall Street complex (which is great), the Earth Food Store has continued to thrive thanks to that killer combination of quality organic produce and friendly service.
Melanie spoke to Caroline inside her busy store.
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Can we please hear a little bit of the Caroline story?
Complete randomness. Life for me is completely random. I randomly worked in a little organic place in Clovelly. And then Dimity, who used to work for Fred, who was the owner of the first health food place in Bondi, in Hall Street, (Fred made all his money from drive-ins) said I should open a shop in Bondi. Max’s shoes moved out of this space and into Ravesi’s Corner and we thought, it’s fantastic! So I paid all my friends in pizza and red wine and we painted and tiled – this is early 90s. So we had the 2 little shops, but we didn’t really have enough money to do the second half but we bought a cool room and set up some shelves and then set up 2 painters’ tressles and put a still life on it and started to trade and basically it has gone from there. But it was really just a random thing of someone saying “why don’t you do that?” and going “OK”. I didn’t have a vision…
But here you are 25 years later and you’ve become an institution, very much a part of the fabric of Bond.
I think over time you become like a piece of sand that just gets into the groove of the rock.
You seem to know a lot about food. I know I can come in here and ask for a recommendation and you can run things off the bat. Is that just something that’s developed over 25 years of working with food?
I was born loving food. We had a peach orchard when I was a kid.
Is that what your family did?
No, it was a side thing.
I think life is a bit of flotsam and jetsam and I’ve ended up here.
Do you think that you have randomly ended up in the place that you were supposed to be?
Once I got over the resentment of the long hours! I love people, I love the beach and I love food. I guess it wasn’t so much the food that drew me it was the organic thing that drew me. I’d spent a bit of time after uni travelling in India. There were lots of kids with chemical poisoning. They had extra growths of things like hands and things and talking to the local people if turned out that it was an agricultural area. And then being young and naive and it being my first time out of Australia I wondered who were the 3 CEOs at the top of big companies doling out these chemicals that were having such devastating impacts on these people. Chemicals that were banned in the States, banned here but they keep shipping them to these places and there was something in me that was very offended, very hurt and I thought we could do something about it. It was the 90s and there was a lot of anger about corporate business. I thought people can have power if they have the choice. Where people spend the money is the biggest choice we have and where their power lies in this economy and democracy. My political angle is that we have this power and we can’t let ourselves off that hook.
You landed in Bondi. How did that happen?
I came from Newcastle to UNSW and I moved into a house in Bondi because it was by the sea. Everyone lived in Bourke Street, Darlinghurst but it didn’t have the beach. Bondi was really daggy. REALLY daggy.
Which suited you beautifully!
Yes! I was really daggy. I liked getting up early. All those things you’re not supposed to do when you’re 19. And I’ve always lived here.
Could Bondi be Clovelly for example? Or Coogee?
Nup. I have to say I remember my Dad saying once, “My god, Bondi has the most beautiful crescent moon beach. It’s perfectly shaped” and there’s something about it. It has perfect symmetry for me. It feels calm enough, wild enough, sheltered enough, exposed enough. And it doesn’t matter what anyone does along the shoreline, the tide keeps coming in and going out. It doesn’t matter if you wear Birkenstocks or have your nose pierced. Get everything waxed, or don’t get everything waxed. It’s still there but I think it’s the shape of the beach. It’s a very symmetrical, comfortable and beautiful.
Is there anywhere else that you eat or drink besides here?
We’ve all got our favourites. I think Gelbisons has to be a favourite coz it’s a nostalgic favourite. They do fantastic garlic mussels. So there’s always the old favourites. I love the gelato from Pompei’s. I like getting an easy meal from Bondi’s Best up at North Bondi. Obviously Sean’s for a special occasion. Coffee, that depends where I’ve lived. At the moment I’m living in North Bondi so I go to Bru or Depot and I think years ago I went to Skinny Dip when it was on the corner of Lamrock. When I lived on Fletcher Street I went to M Deli. It really is about being really local. I like Chapter One.
What are you reading and/watching at the moment?
I just finished reading Salman Rushdie’s latest book. Which is Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-eight Nights: A Novel. It’s hilarious and I really enjoyed.
With your hours how do you get through a novel like that?
I did a particularly long week last week so I stayed in bed all Sunday and read most of the book. If I really love a page-turner, I’m in it. I often go up to Gertrude and Alice and they always recommend a good book. And I like Gertrude and Alice just to go in and sit. Particularly in the winter.
Are you a TV watcher?
No I’m not watching TV at the moment. I can get quite seduced by television so I’ve sort of banned myself.
Are you excited about anything?
We’re going to renovate the shop this year – hopefully. So I’m a bit excited about that.
It’s good that you’ve got the energy still after all this time.
Sometimes I feel that I don’t, and that I’m an old decrepit lady.
I do wonder sometimes if we are still relevant. The real estate has become more expensive so that means a different population. The Bondi when I first moved here was itinerant musicians, artists, dog owners, swimmers, pot growers, a lot of Samoan singers, Maoris, but a lot of them have moved on now. So you do have to ask if you’re still relevant and how you’re still relevant.
I would have thought more and more relevant. People want to know more and more about what’s in their food.
They also want it more gimmicky than I’m giving it to them. So they want it mashed up in a juice. Chewing went out of fashion last year!
Chewing will be back! It never goes out forever.
People don’t have the big meals where they sit around the table together so much anymore. Everything is a bit faster. If you could drink breakfast, drink lunch you could save yourself a couple of hours.
So fast food, but fast juiced up food.
Do you have a motto?
No I don’t really have a motto. Maybe respecting others. Generally most people are good to each other and here in Bondi they tend look after each other. What I said before about the shape of the beach, I think it’s a symbol of the people here, their generosity of spirit.
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Full interview on SoundCloud below or HERE
