The Story of Picciriddu

Sunday, May 01, 2016 Sharon Halim 0 Comments

Yuwandi Buntarja is an Indonesian born man with no background in hospitality studies. He is a tech guy with a Computer Engineering background and has lived in Indonesia, Singapore and Perth. Nearly 8 years ago he decided to call Melbourne his home. Together with his wife he began the journey in unknown land, building their life as well as career together.

As a husband and wife team they have a deep passion for serving people, making people happy and giving hope to others during hards times.

In 2014, they decided to take a leap of faith and opened a small cafe at South Yarra called Picciriddu. The name means a small boy in Sicilian translation. This cafe serves various Western and Indonesian dishes but their main specialty is their coffee. They've put so much love and effort into this little charming space.

It was not easy for them to start. Lina, Yuwandi's wife, quit her job in a education company to help her husband. She changed her life around and became the barista while Yuwandi was the chef at the back. Later down the road, they had some help from a very understanding and helpful girl who is currently studying hospitality in Melbourne.
As we know the competition is tight in South Yarra, all the famous cafes with big names and big investments backing them. That was not the case with Picciriddu, just a small team passionate about making their customer's day better. It was a journey full of experiments, failures and successes but they kept going.

According to Yuwandi, the only thing that makes them keep going during the tough times was their passion in making people happy, giving them hope that one bad day does not mean anything, life does get better. His life is the living proof of it.

One of his fundamental principles is to start something with good intentions, a genuine heart and strong passion. He says "Money is just something comes with success. To get there you need something else. For me it's just simply the hope for each and every customer who comes to Picciriddu to leave with a cheerful heart. It might sound silly, how a cup of coffee or a simple home cooked dish can make an impact on a person's day but truthfully I've seen it happen and it does have an impact."

I'm one of the witnesses of how Picciriddu transforms from a normal cafe into something more than just a cafe. It's where people comes for a good cup of coffee and leave with a smile on their face.