Paninis and pot plants - Bunbury nursery Potted Warehouse opens ‘Italian flair’cafe

When Amanda Panuccio opened The Potted Warehouse in the heart of Bunbury four years ago, she never expected to be adding cannolis and chicken parmi rolls to her inventory.

But last Tuesday she did exactly that when she opened an ‘Italian flair’ café within the indoor nursery, and the reception has been nothing short of “amazing”.

“We’ve always wanted to do coffee, so bought a machine about a year ago but didn’t crank it up,” Ms Panuccio said. “Then we thought, ‘oh we’ll just put a bit of a kitchen in’ and it just got bigger and bigger.”

We just like the (idea of a) traditional nursery, where you’ve got a café in it, your plants and your pots.

Initially intending to open the café – which is takeaway only – earlier in the year, the plans were put on hold when the coronavirus pandemic hit, during which they completely closed for five weeks.

They reopened in May, but the launch of the cafe last week has seen them busier than ever.

Mrs Panuccio said the support from the community has been so much so that they had to hire four extra staff members in the first three days, more than doubling the team to cater for the demand.

We thought we’d have a soft opening and get ourselves really organised and we’ve just been smashed which is awesome – we couldn’t have asked for more.

“Honestly, every time we do something, Bunbury just (supports us), we’re always surprised by the turn out we get.”