By
It is a philosophy of Najeroux that all that come in to - and stay in - our space be either beautiful, useful, or better still, both. We extend this to our work, because what is a life unless it can be both useful and beautiful, enchanting the senses at every turn?
Much like twinkle lights can improve almost any space, so can the presence of coffee and books. Let us talk about these two wonders, which fuelled the expansion of ideas in the renaissance via the printing press and the coffee house, lifting the illiterate masses with their senses dulled by gin into the heady joy of sharing thought. Literacy exploded. Everyone was caffeinated up to the gills. It is a glorious inheritance we still expound today.
Najeroux has been working closely with Sidecar Roasters to expand their visibility beyond the Hunter Valley, and experimenting with new ways to enjoy their speciality coffee at home. The first run of home compostable coffee pods has just been released, and we are learning wonderful new things about how people take their Sidecar away from Sidecar - on the road, at the desk, halfway up a mountain, in the still hour before the house wakes.
If you are new here, this is who is writing to you. We make ideas happen. We build things, and we help other people build their ideas: a second-hand art and design book store called PRINT (currently looking for a home), a cafe-roastery nurturing a love of speciality coffee and creativity in the regions, a sourdough baker so loved by their customers that they are absolutely at capacity and need a new space to expand, and a handful of local and national clients who do good work and deserve to be found by the people who respect quality and craft. That is Najeroux. Field Notes is where we tell you what we have been doing, who we have been doing it with, and what has just come in. You are here because you bought a book, drank a coffee, or simply got curious one day. Reason enough.
The last few weeks have been generous ones. New clients, new media exposure, new friends, and the thread running through all of it is the one we never let go of: we work with people who choose quality in their craft every single day, even when the cheaper, faster road is sitting right there waving them over.
Sidecar you already know, the speciality roastery in Branxton, where the coffee is taken seriously and the welcome more seriously still. Then there is Just Roll With It, the sourdough that makes you reconsider what you thought bread was for. Hungerford Meat Co bring proper butchery and provenance you can taste. Dear Petal and Piggott's Pharmacy Branxton round out a circle of neighbours who have each decided, in their own way, that doing it well is worth the extra effort. We are lucky to work alongside them. The town is luckier still.
Media has come knocking too, which is a strange and lovely thing when you spend most of your days in an apron, behind a coffee machine or a laptop. The attention is welcome, though the real reward has been the friendships. Regional work is relationship work. You cannot fake your way into a community, and you would not want to.
Over at PRINT, the shelves have been doing what good shelves do, which is keep surprising us.
Recent arrivals include a collection from Anne Bray, a local artist and ceramicist whose eye for form runs all the way through her library. Books chosen by makers tend to be the best kind, touched and considered and loved into softness at the spine.
We have also taken in the wonders excavated from the eastern suburbs home of two of the most brilliant curators I have had the honour of knowing and the good fortune to call friends. A curator's personal library is a particular treasure. These are people who spend their working lives deciding what is worth keeping and showing to the world, so a glimpse into what they keep for themselves is rare indeed. Come and have a look before someone with very good taste beats you to it.
And another offer arrived over the weekend that I am not quite ready to talk about yet, except to say it is the sort of thing that makes this work feel like a small adventure. More on that soon.
Here is the part we keep coming back to. None of this is decoration. The pretty things earn their place by being useful, and the useful things earn a longer life by being made with care. A compostable pod that lets you drink excellent coffee without leaving a mess for the planet. Bread that feeds a family and tastes like someone gave a damn. The second-hand book that has already been loved once and is ready for it again. Beauty and use are not opposites pulling in different directions. They are the same instinct, expressed twice.
That instinct is the whole reason Najeroux exists. A regional town can be a place people choose to be, rather than somewhere they pass through on the expressway. The small businesses holding the line on quality are the ones worth backing, loudly and often. And the most ordinary objects, a cup or a book or a string of lights, can change how a room feels and how a person feels standing in it.
So thank you for being here. Whether you found us through a flat white, a much sought out and coveted hardcover, a magazine feature, or a friend who would not stop talking about the bookshop, you are part of the reason any of this works. PRINT lives online for now while we find it the right home, and you can collect your finds from Sidecar Roasters on Sundays between 10am and 1pm - books and coffee in the one stop, which feels about right. Browse anytime, and we will see you Sunday.
Until the next set of notes,
The Najeroux team
