Blakeaway Armadale

After two years of total disruption to the foodie scene in Melbourne, it’s always great to hear success stories. Enter premier boutique catering company Blakes Feast, which blazed a trail of success throughout the COVID lockdowns to open a chain of stores in the Bayside area. Milk Bar caught up with Neredah McIntosh, CEO of Blakes Feast, and had an in-depth conversation about their newest store, Blakeaway Armadale, and what customers can expect from the store and the ever-changing menu of healthy goodness.

Congratulations on opening Blakeaway Armadale! In what has been a challenging almost two years for the industry, can you tell our readers of the journey it took to open the High Street-based store?

On Friday 13 March 2020, all our events had been cancelled for the foreseeable future. The partners had a meeting and decided that we didn’t want to let any of our staff go. JobKeeper was still two weeks from being announced and our fixed operating costs were sizeable. Ten years ago, we started making take home meals during winter to help cash flow. This had remained (on a very small scale) through our hole-in-the-wall café at our head office in Glen Iris. We had observed the panic buying and decided there was an opportunity to expand on what we had been doing for years. That day we launched Blakeaway – we went out on social media and over that weekend had thousands of enquiries and hundreds of orders.

A week later we moved to an online ordering platform. Then we opened our Portsea store in December 2020 and the response was overwhelming. It showed that a tangible shopping experience resonated with a lot of our target market. From there we opened our Church Street Brighton store in August 2021 and our flagship High Street Armadale store in November 2021.

It’s surreal to think how much the business has transformed in the last two years. We’d never have started Blakeaway had it not been for the pandemic, but it’s now become a key part of our business.

The store fit out is sleek, modern and vibrant. The pop of green is gorgeous. For those that may not know about Blakeaway, can you tell us a little bit about the store and its offering?

Blakeaway offers a constantly changing menu of chef-prepared, ready-made meals that you can pick up in store or order online and have delivered to your home. We have everything from miso salmon and soba noodle salad to vegetarian lasagne, Sri-Lankan chicken curry, a range of ribbon sandwiches, dumplings, pizza, condiments and pre-made cocktails.

I always encourage customers to grab a coffee and take their time in the store. Our friendly staff are there to assist with any questions you may have. If you need to cater for a dinner party, for example, they know how many portions you’ll need, which dishes go really well with each other, and they can help you build a menu from canapés and cocktails on arrival, a shared banquet for the main, through to dessert to finish (a tub of Pidapipo ice-cream is a must!).

All of our stores offer a custom hamper service. Pick all the goodies you wish to gift, and we’ll put it in a signature green hamper box with a card and note. If you’re visiting our Portsea or Armadale store, you can also check out the beautiful range of homewares we have on offer – things like glassware and napery, platters, bowls and cocktail stirrers.

The Blakeaway menu is a glorious smorgasbord of apple, cinnamon and almond bircher muesli, juices, salads, quesadillas, snacks and curries, to name a few. What is the process in developing weekly ready-to-go meals?  

Our menu is ever-changing, however there are items that we MUST keep on (there would be anarchy if we ever took off our truffled pecorino & Bannockburn chicken sandwiches or our lasagne!). Our Executive Chef Daniel Snooks, our Blakeaway Head Chef Tom Capell, Andrew Blake (owner) and I will get together and brainstorm dish ideas and concepts. From there, Dan and Tom refine and create the recipes.

Once it’s approved, it’s ready for the new menu cycle. We listen to all our customer requests and try to bring back dishes they are craving. But it is important to change it up, no one wants to see the same dish week in week out.

What can shoppers expect from Blakeaway over the summer period? Are there any plans for expansion in 2022?

Since the conception of Blakeaway, we’ve been in long lockdowns over the winter periods, so we designed our menus over this time to bring comfort. Easy, family-friendly meals were at the forefront of our offering.

In contrast, summer meant freedom and time to see all the people you missed the most. As such, we created menus meant for entertaining. Great banquet dishes – whole split chickens, salads, flatbreads, large desserts. Keeping it lighter and full on the brilliant produce summer brings.

We have so much planned for 2022. You will just have to wait & see!

How does Blakeaway differentiate itself from other well-known stores in the market?

Blakes Feast has been family run since 1992 and what sets us apart from other catering businesses is our approach. Food and family are at the heart of everything we do, and whether we’re catering for your event or you’re picking up some ready-made meals from one of our Blakeaway stores, we have carefully considered every aspect of your experience.

Our Blakeaway stores differentiate themselves through their food, beverage and lifestyle offerings. We don’t have any dine-in options, but our customers can come into our stores, grab a coffee, pastry, sandwich or salad to eat on the go, and browse a wide range of meals, snacks and sides that are all made by expert chefs with fresh, premium ingredients.

We have thoughtfully considered every supplier in our stores – only when we can’t do it better ourselves do we look at other brands: Rustichella pasta, Sam Gordon X BLAKEAWAY platters and bowls, Renee Marie Glass Swizzle Sticks, Maison Balzac candles and glassware, Cultiver linen, Chow Cacao Vegan Chocolate & many more.

What are some of the challenges that Blakes Feast has had to navigate throughout the pandemic?

 Losing every single booking in our system in just 24 hours at the start of the pandemic was both stressful and terrifying, and that was just the beginning. Pivoting to an online offering was the only way to save our business and staff, and while we were incredibly lucky that Blakeaway took off the way it did, we still had to grapple with the numerous lockdowns and staffing shortages, as well as making sure we were always operating in a way that kept our staff, customers and wider community safe.

Despite that, the past two years have, in a way, been unbelievably rewarding. If it wasn’t for the pandemic and its harsh impact on the events and hospitality industry, we’d probably never have launched Blakeaway, which is now a key part of our business. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s that the stability and security we once had as a business is not coming back any time soon, so being able to adapt and remain resilient will be critical for us going forward.

Blakeaway Armadale
1180 High Street, Armadale,
Open 7 days, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 4pm
blakeaway.com.au