A former cafe owner who made headlines for a controversial advertising sign is eager to revive her burger store on the Sunshine Coast’s main beach strip.
Business owner Sally was thrust into the spotlight with her roadside sign ‘Sally’s Big Ass Burgers’ outside her Tradies and Ladies Cafe in Melbourne about a decade ago.
It proved to be a PR masterstroke as the business boomed, but there was significant community backlash and calls for the sign to be removed.
The uproar, and the emergence of the pandemic, took its toll and after nine years running the business there, she packed her bags and headed to back to Queensland, where she grew up.
Now, she’s eager to reinvent her store on Mooloolaba Esplanade.
“I think this (the Sunshine Coast) is the place I’ll be settling in, and I’d love to do it all again,” she said.
“I don’t think I’m going to get as much flak as the first time. I hope not.
“Obviously, I’d cop a bit of flak, because not everyone likes the word ‘ass’. But everyone has one.”
She has yet to make a formal move to open a business there but was likely to do so when the time was right.
“I definitely want it to happen, and Mooloolaba is where I would like it to happen,” she said.
“It’s a great tourist spot, so I wouldn’t have to rely on locals, as you do in a small town.
“I also know there’s not a really good hamburger joint there, so I think it would do well.”
Sally said she experienced a whirlwind ride in Melbourne, because of the original sign.
After completing her chef’s apprenticeship and a marketing course, she started the cafe “in a pretty snobby sort of area”.
“But I’m not snobby out all … and me being me and totally Australian didn’t go down too well there,” she said.
The sign kickstarted years of publicity, and problems.
“For me, it started as a bit of a joke,” she said.
“I’ve had nicknames all my life, so I had an artist draw a cartoon character of me with a 3kg burger, which I sold at the time.
“It (the sign) was about me having a laugh at myself. If others take offence to that, it’s not my problem.
“And big burgers weren’t really a thing then. There wasn’t even a burger shop like that in Melbourne.
“I also created eating competitions and things rolled on from there.”
It was a promotional hit and led to an influx of interest and customers.
Posts on social media led to a front-page story in the Herald Sun.
“Then Eddie McGuire from Triple M rang, and I got on the radio and spoke to him, and they played the interview every day for five days. It was quite funny,” she said.
“He got me on the hop, and I spoke the way I usually do, and I think it was up their alley, being very Australian.”
Sally featured on morning television shows and radio and in newspapers, and even had her own television show in the city.
“It went off,” she said.
“It was a crazy six months of it. It was good for business, but it was all about the bloody sign.
“It ended up being the best thing in the world for the business. The advertising was priceless.”
People would come from far and wide to eat at her cafe.
“It was a fun time, creating events and spending time with customers and cooking from the heart and soul,” she said.
But there was substantial community angst, and she was subjected to bullying.
“It got really bad,” she said.
“It was a terrible time, and it was only my tenacity that got me through it.
“I was always in survival mode.
“I created a big following from around Victoria and interstate, who wanted to support me and what was going on at the shop, but I didn’t have the local support of a small town with people with small minds, as I found out.”
She said she was also the victim of a burglary.
“I lived on the premises and was there with my young daughters when we had two blokes in my house and the shop for 16 minutes. It was all over the news.”
After years of running the busy business and riding a wave of criticism, Sally closed the cafe largely due to the pandemic.
She moved to Airlie Beach “but it was far too humid” and she relocated to the Sunshine Coast, where she loves the weather.
“It’s perfect,” she said.
Sally is renovating a residence on the Coast, while trying to get her business going again.
“Here we go again,” she said.
“Time to kick ass again, have fun and enjoy the best of both worlds – sun and food – and with passion from my heart.”
She said the burgers and other fare would be the stars of the planned Mooloolaba store.
“The one thing I know is, once I’ve got you in and you eat, you’re coming back and you don’t care about the name,” she said.
“The food is good, which is the most important thing.
“And there are many places along The Esplanade I could easily slot into. I don’t want a massive shop.”
She said she had plenty of know-how to make the business successful, in a “relaxed” environment.
“I’m thankful of the experience I had in Melbourne because I know what to do better,” she said.
“I will do things differently this time around and I think it is going to be better received here.
“You can’t say anything in Melbourne without someone being offended: it’s ridiculous.
“People don’t seem to be as easily offended here. Queenslanders are pretty relaxed, and I reckon they’ll think it’s okay.”
Sally said it would be relatively subtle.
“The registered business name is ‘Sally’s Big Ass Burgers’ so I should go down that path, but I don’t want it to cause as much drama as last time,” she said.
“Queenslanders are much more Australian than the folks in Melbourne, so I don’t see too much drama with the name, to be honest.
“I just want people to see it for what it is: colourful and humorous.”
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