Victoria’s Popular All-Day Breakfast Spot ‘Jam Cafe’ Opens Softly On Beatty Street

by Andrew Morrison | Jim Walmsley and Mike Deas-Dawlish very quietly opened their 50 seat Jam Cafe yesterday at 556 Beatty Street. It’s a very similar menu to the original, insanely popular location in Victoria, but why mess with success? Creativity isn’t the thing chefs Buddy Wolfe and Scott Minns have to worry about. It’s volume. If it goes off as well as it should – and with 7 different types of eggs benny, fast table turnover, and a consistent cooking, it really should – this address might see line ups again, just as it did when it used to be Cafe Medina.

The look and feel is a nod to the original location as well, with lots of vintage items sourced from Kilshaw’s auction house in Victoria (eg. old crates, baseball catcher’s mask, baskets, moose antlers, etc.), plus many pieces designed/painted by Candy Walmsley, Jim’s wife and partner. They put a lot of work into the renovations, especially in the kitchen, which they expanded and constructed a new venting system for. Hours are 8am to 3pm, 7 days a week, so they aren’t playing the dinner game. Private functions, however, are a given. Take a look:

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At 21 years old, I'm still just a kid and relatively new to working in restaurants, but I grew up umbilically tied to the hospitality industry. My father was a food writer, and my mother is a photographer. Their careers meant that most of my early years were spent in kitchens and dining rooms instead of on playgrounds and soccer fields; consequently, I learned my table manners before I could count past one hundred.