Kaydee Frostborne, co-owner of the Librarium Cafe in Hobart, often imagined being a small business owner, running a cozy shop to call her own. When she met her husband, Johnny Frostborne, it was a point of conversation for the new couple.
“I talked to him about how I’d always wanted to open a café and bakery,” she said. “I’d always had this dream of loaves of bread in the window, selling cupcakes, and things like that.”
It turned out Frostborne had a similar goal – but instead of baked goods and house blends, he pictured a store offering card games, board games, and all manners of gaming memorabilia.
“He’d dreamed of opening-up a game store after he spent a lot of time at Critical Effect, which closed down years ago,” she said. “The more we talked about it, the more we started looking into what it would take to make our dreams a reality. Before you know it, we were requesting a loan and finding a building.”
They decided to combine their dreams to create the Librarium Cafe. Initially, they kept things fairly simple – offering coffee and games along with space to play. Since then, it has evolved into a community hub thatoffers coffee, baked goods, an ever-evolving menu of foodstuffs, and shelves full of games and merchandise.
“You have this vision in your head of what things are going to be like, but no amount of research on the internet is going to help you really be prepared for what it’s like to first open your business,” she said. “We pretty much immediately started finding our customer base, and that first year was just a flurry of activity.”
As things started to settle into a rhythm, Frostborne found that Librarium was quickly becoming something of a community all on its own.
“I just love talking to people. The relationships and friendships that we’ve made with our regular guests are special,” she said. “They’ve become family as much as anything else. That’s got to be my favorite part of my job. I really, truly enjoy being able to make someone’s day, sometimes just by doing things like putting sprinkles in their drink.”
After all, community is on their sign, right next to coffee and games.
“Small coffee shops, specifically, provide a place for people to come and meet,” she said. “We’ve had first dates here, birthday parties, and meetings both big and small. It’s important to keep coffee shops alive because of that sense of community you can find here.”
Frostborne also made it a priority to keep Librarium a welcoming place for absolutely everyone.
“This is a safe space, as much as possible,” she said. “Kids are safe in here. Adults are safe in here. We’ve got things up in the window saying trans rights are human rights, black lives batter, love is love, because we really want people to understand that they can come in here and be safe.”
COVID-19 is proving to be a difficult challenge for Frostborne because of her passion for providing a community space, especially since they closed their dining room to keep their guests as safe as possible.
“It’s been hard not being able to pull up a chair and chit chat with the people I’d normally sit down and talk to,” she said. “That hi/bye thing is really sad, but necessary. I haven’t had to clean tables for what feels like months!”
The Librarium Cafe is a team endeavor, and Frostborne credits her husband as an inspiration and constant source of growth for both her and the café.
“Personally and professionally, he is brave, tenacious, and so creative,” she said. “The things he tries, that work out more often than not, are inspiring. When most people have an idea, like me, they’ll say ‘let’s bat it around for a while.’ He pulls the trigger and goes for it.”
Frostborne was born in Hobart and lives there with her husband and their baby, Lily.