Shook CafeCafé fit-out design · Waterloo

Shook is a youthful, energetic café brand, and the interior had to look like it: bright, fresh and recognisable at a glance. It also had to work hard as a café, with the practical side of the operation sitting behind a strong customer-facing identity.

The space is relatively compact. The design needed a clear separation between front of house, where customers order and sit, and back of house, where staff prepare and clean, without making the room feel closed in.

Blue is the main accent throughout: on the ceiling, in the branding and illuminated signage, and in selected furniture. Light concrete finishes and neutral surfaces balance it, so the café stays bright while the brand stays dominant.

Neon and illuminated graphics run through the space and lean into the brand's playful side. Cacti, decorative objects and feature pieces, including a glossy blue bear sculpture and a translucent glass-block wall, give the café a relaxed, youthful personality. At the counter, a pastry cabinet and coffee station sit beside an illuminated blue Shook column against concrete-toned walls.

In a small café, the back of house takes more room than most owners expect, and the rules decide much of it before the design starts.

The NSW Food Authority says every food business must meet the Food Standards Code's premises standard, and councils usually make AS 4674 a condition of consent. Among other things, that means hands-free hand basins within 5 metres of where food is handled, solid walls (stud walls aren't permitted) and concealed pipes and conduits.

Councils add their own requirements. The City of Sydney, the council for Waterloo, asks for staff toilets in every food business and customer toilets once a venue holds more than 20 diners. That one number can change a layout. The City of Sydney also requires a kitchen exhaust to discharge vertically above roof level, which can be the hardest part of the job in a building with floors above.

Then the plumbing. Sydney Water says most retail food businesses need in-sink and in-floor bucket traps, a correctly sized grease trap and backflow protection, and its approval before a grease trap goes in.

And the use. If the tenancy wasn't a café before, turning a shop into one generally needs a development application or a complying development certificate.

We recommend testing the seat count, the toilets and the exhaust route on the floor plan before you sign the lease. In a small café, those three decide whether the layout works.