Harry’s Cafe de Wheels sold to German master butcher
“We’re called Harry’s Cafe de Wheels, but have you tried our coffee?” asks Tino Dees, the new owner of Australia’s most famous pie cart. “It’s shocking. Finding a way to make good coffee and serve it quickly is going to be our biggest challenge.”
Dees, who also owns Sydney-based smallgood wholesaler the German Butchery, took control of Harry’s in August.
The new owner of Harry's Cafe de Wheels, Tino Dees of the German Butchery in Bexley North, is the first new owner since 1988. Credit:Wolter Peeters
The master butcher wants to open more than 100 Harry’s locations around Australia and has firm ideas of what direction the 73-year-old business should take: changes to the menu, store design and Ultimo factory are in the works, and there’s even talks of putting Harry’s pies in the sky.
“I’ve had some conversations with Qantas about it,” said Dees. “I think it would be fantastic to be served a little Harry’s pie and mini hotdog on a flight into Sydney.”
Former fruit-truck driver Harry “Tiger” Edwards opened the original Harry’s caravan in 1945 near Woolloomooloo’s Garden Island naval dockyard to provide sailors, wharfies and socialites with late-night pies and crumbed sausages. In 2004 the stall was recognised with a heritage listing from the National Trust as a place of cultural and historic interest for future Australians. Elton John once held a press conference there.
Harry Edwards serves London model Sally Farmiloo in 1968.Credit:Adrian Greer
Edwards died in 1979, aged 67. Vietnam veteran Michael Hannah purchased Harry’s in 1988 and franchised the business to open 13 more stores in NSW (and one in Shenzhen, China) before deciding he was at the right age for retirement in May. Dees was visiting Harry's Woolloomooloo site as a customer and after hearing the business was going up for sale, made an offer before it went to market.
Dees is tight-lipped on the sale price but admits he paid too much. “Because of the plans we have in place for Harry’s, however, that number becomes irrelevant. It’s an iconic brand,” he said.
The 44-year-old moved to Australia from Germany in 2008 to work as a meat industry consultant.
He opened The German Butchery opened in 2012 and Dees has won more than 170 awards for his sausages, hams and bacon.
Customers can expect a stronger focus on hotdogs as Harry’s expands.
“I don’t think there has been a franchise in Australia that has really done hotdogs well,” Dees said. “I love pies, don’t get me wrong, but I’m German so I also really love hotdogs. Instead of having one type of dog we want three. We looking a doing a standard hotdog sausage, a chorizo-type version and one that’s more in the classic barbecue style.”
Fans of Harry’s famous Tiger (that is a meat pie topped with mushy peas, mashed potato and gravy) can take comfort; it will stay on the menu and remain unchanged.
Woolloomooloo's Harry's Cafe de Wheels in 1949.Credit:Mulligan
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