It’s always interesting when a chance meeting brings two people together who share quite a deal in common.
I recently had the great pleasure of meeting the infectiously positive George Kalpakis.
Many years back, George left the relative safety of the corporate world to pursue his passion and start a business with his wife. Along the way, he’s made sure to find time for family while getting in a healthy dose of surfing and some snow holidays.
It’s interesting because, funnily enough, myself and my business partner in Smorgasboarder, Mark (who thankfully is not my wife), also left our corporate gigs in search of something that would afford us more time with family with plenty of surfing and snowboarding to boot.
We both just so happen to very much like brownies, which incidentally is the business George and his wife Caroline started some ten years ago called Brazen Brownies.
George and Caroline have three kids – 26, 23, and 19. Coincidentally, Katie and I also have three kids – 24, 22, and 19. My wife Katie hails from Balwyn in Melbourne, while George and Caroline live just up the road in East Ivanhoe and also have a place up here on the Sunshine Coast, only a couple of kilometres from where we live.
I honestly could go on and on, but needless to say, we have a lot in common and hit it off immediately.
Firstly, on the surfing side of things, George is a self-confessed average surfer. I am the same. He surfed often as a kid, but it was during the time when he lived on Victoria’s Surf Coast that this passion truly took hold. George picks up the story.
“Well, back when I worked for ANZ’s mobile division, we lived down in Torquay at The Sands. After all, with that kind of a role, there was no point living in Melbourne. Although I probably shouldn’t say, the lifestyle down there was very much so that some days you might finish around two in the afternoon, so I would often go off for a surf. Some of my friends would get on their buggies and play golf with a few tinnies, but I loved nothing more than going for a surf. It was beautiful.”
Interestingly enough, George’s weapon of choice is a McTavish Fireball, and reportedly he and Bob are good friends. Coincidentally, my dad and Bob were good mates too.
“Yeah, I don’t consider myself much of a surfer with short boards or anything like that. I just like my longboard. That’s my cup of tea. Plus, the thing about surfing is that it’s not really about the vehicle anyway – it’s about being surrounded by nature. I don’t know whether it’s the sand or the salt or the breeze, but it really gives you this incredible feeling that just makes me want to immerse myself in it.
“These days, I don’t take on anything too challenging. When the wind and tide are right, I will take the longboard out front at Bokarina, but I don’t want to risk hurting myself.”
It’s interesting to note that George is quite accident-prone, much like myself. Although, I must say he has raised the stakes suffering a serious spinal injury whilst mountain biking.
However, George’s sentiments about not risking injury and the adverse impacts it can have on your business and family life certainly resonate with me. Once I was happy to throw caution to the air, but I have undoubtedly become a lot more cautious these days, read chicken.
“I certainly still enjoy getting in the water every chance I get. Even when we’re on the road with the business, I can’t take a board with me, but I still love to call in at little places along the east coast and have a body bash. I might pull over and think, ‘Well, that’s a nice wave,’ and jump in. That’s the beauty of it. When you come out, you just feel so fresh and great. I mean, what more do you want?”
Recalling my regular road trips with Smorgasboarder along the east coast, which are far too infrequent these days, I couldn’t agree more.
“Yeah, it gives me a nice little burst of energy to carry on. Then, I indulge in a couple of coffees and a brownie – that’s my diet.”
Ah yes, the brownie. I too have an addiction to those little slabs of chocolate goodness. As I mentioned, that just so happens to be George’s business. George went on to explain how he became a dealer.
“Well, my wife Caroline was in fact a lawyer with her own practice. She was for over 25 years before she came to the realisation that she wanted to do something that actually brings joy to people.
“Her love of travelling and food led her to undertake culinary studies in both Australia and Europe. This just cemented her love for cooking, and she knew her true passion was in the food industry.”
Interestingly, my wife Katie also loves to cook. As for her speciality, she bakes one awesome brownie, although she’s never pursued it in a commercial sense. George went on to explain his role in the business.
“Where I come in, well, I love sweets. I’m a dessert lover, and I like to think of myself as a brownie advocate and ambassador. That’s my title, whereas my wife is a brownie designer.
“I spent more than 25 years in professional services, you know, working for the likes of AMP, GE, CSC, and ANZ. I love dealing with people and building relationships, and so I help with the business side of things and work with our wonderful clients.
“When I’m not doing that, I’m in a black apron crunching out brownies alongside Caroline and the team. That said, what I love most of all is getting out there and meeting with all of the people who have supported us.”
Now, at this point, having sampled quite a few Brazen Brownies, I must say they are seriously good, and I believe I am somewhat of a brownie aficionado given that Katie makes some of the best brownies I have ever tasted.
At risk of putting myself in the doghouse, this is stiff competition. The Brazen Brownies I have sampled are absolutely something else.
“I suppose what makes us different from our competitors is that we’re not a bakery – we are purely manufacturers of brownies and brownies only. There’s not one brownie company that would specialise in the way that we do.
“So, we have 20 different products and have them all flow-wrapped. That’s how we ship them, and that’s how we preserve the freshness. That’s the key – freshness and the fact that we are small-batch and can focus on quality over quantity.”
If you’re the owner of a small coffee shop, café, restaurant, or general store along the east coast of Australia, I would seriously consider reaching out to George and the team at Brazen Brownies.
Having travelled the road so many times from the Sunshine Coast all the way down to Cape Bridgewater in Victoria near the South Australian border, I know of so many of my frequent pitstops along the way where these delectable little sweet treats would be a huge hit. You never know – you too may share a heap in common with this lovable man.
“Let’s face it, everyone needs a guilty pleasure. Brownies are the perfect match with coffee, texturally and taste-wise. They go hand in hand with extending ourselves – it’s a reward. That’s why we like to associate ourselves with things like run clubs and surfing for that matter.
“You put in all that hard work, so you need to be lifted back up again. When your body is tired, you need something that will elevate you and your taste buds. When they are, guess what? You feel great. You want to go back out.”
Finally, not that I detected an accent, but George and his wife are from North America. Caroline is from New Jersey, with George having lived in Toronto, Canada. Where are my kids right now? Canada. And how about where they were when George and I first met? At that point in time, they just so happened to be in Toronto. Cue The X-Files music.
