How I Got Here: Sammy’s mum, Carole Rose
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This ‘How I Got Here’ editorial is a bit different from others that I’ve had the pleasure of writing. This editorial is about my mumma, the one and only Carole Rose. She’s a force to be reckoned with, a persistent feeder, and a true advocate and backbone of her community in Goulburn, where she raised me and my three sisters.
My mum is the founder, owner, and manager of Roses Cafe in Goulburn (along with my Papa Michael, of course). When they opened their doors over 20 years ago, they were situated across Belmore Park and next to the historic Goulburn Courthouse. They’re currently in Verner Street, in a picturesque old school hall opposite St Peter and Paul’s Cathedral.
My mum is in the shop most days, immaculately dressed, wearing rose gold jewellery and smelling of Chanel No. 5. You’ll find her checking in with customers, getting her steps in on the floor, or behind the counter showcasing her handmade goodies including muffins, salads, lasagne, frittatas and slices.
Growing up watching her build this business, alongside my Dad, I learned what a very strong work ethic and dedication to a career you love looks like.
This is her story of how she got to where she is today, as told by both of us.
Existential crisis time: Who is Carole Rose, what does she do?
My mum is the owner and founder of Roses Cafe in Goulburn. She’s been running it since June 2006 with my dad Michael. Over 30 people work there. Everything is made in-house, and it’s become a must-stop on the road from Canberra to Sydney (if I do say so myself).
But when I asked my mum to describe herself, she said, “I’m someone who loves looking after people. That’s the whole of it, really. That’s always been the whole of it.”
And she does it very well.
For us as kids, when we worked in the family business, it meant making sure customers never touched the front door as we held it open for them, or taking notes to remember the orders of our beloved regulars.
Let’s go back to when Carole was a kid. Did she always dream of working in this industry?
No. My mum didn’t wake up one day dreaming of running a cafe.
‘I had quite a few odd jobs in Sydney where I grew up, and I left school early for a short stint as a hairdresser. I worked at David Jones and waitressed at wedding receptions (that’s where I discovered I had a real gift for making people feel cared for). I worked at restaurants, managed a bar at the Angel Hotel, I eventually worked at the Hilton in Sydney as a hostess in stiletto heels! I knew all our VIP guests names by heart, and they learnt mine.”
Mum says she kept gravitating back to hospitality. Even when she thought she was done with it, she’d find herself doing catering from home, cooking for events, looking after people through food.
Then she met my Dad, a muso from Manly. They fell in love and started a family, and eventually moved to a 28-acre property outside of Goulburn where they thought it would be easier and more affordable to raise my sisters and me.
Tell us about when Carole was first starting out. What set a fire in her belly, and how did she do it?
Asking my Mum about how and when the cafe started, she says it was a slow burn around the time Dad was selling real estate. They sold caramel slices and sweets at markets across the ACT and New South Wales, travelling to Kiama, Hall, Camden, and even Moruya. Some of my fondest childhood memories are waking up in the early hours of the morning with Mum, sitting in the van beside my little sisters, listening to classics on the radio and eating mentos from the servo for brekky.
Mum and Dad also did fundraisers for schools; they’d bake and package thousands of slabs of caramel, Florentine and Mars Bar slices for hundreds of hungry kids and their families.
Mum says it was around this time one of my Dad’s colleagues suggested they open a cafe. Mum wasn’t sold on the idea; she wanted to wait until all four of us girls – Mikaela, me, Alison, and Stephanie – were settled in school.
But once she made the decision, she went all in.
“Opening day in June 2006 was chaotic. Queues out the door, down the street. People came in droves. A couple of staff members actually resigned that week because it was so intense.” Carole remembers.
I had just started Year 7 at Trinity Catholic College, and I remember my Maths teacher Mr Cockburn telling me my parents didn’t need to book in for a parent-teacher interview that year; instead he’d pop down to the shop and use it as an excuse to see my mum and buy some slices.
For anyone who hasn’t been to Roses, everything is made in-house, by hand, with a whole lotta love. My mum was, and still is, motivated by providing people with good food and excellent service, and the incredible feeling you get after a job done well.
To this day she loves to tell us girls, “If you work hard and you love what you do, anything is possible.”
“I’ve always said that hard work beats talent, and I’ve built our business on that principle. Any small business owner would know that it’s a lot of work, but also very rewarding.’
Recall a time when you wanted to chuck it all in. What did you tell yourself when it got too hard?
Mum can recall a few times when she wanted to throw in the towel…
‘Sometimes when there were issues with customers, or staff, or just insanely busy days which were fantastic but overwhelming and exhausting, I did think about shutting up shop. But at the end of the day I still enjoyed the work I was doing, and loved the self-sufficiency of being able to provide for my girls. Although it was long hours, I loved that I could go to an athletics carnival for half an hour, or pop out to see an assembly at the girls’ schools.”
“I would tell myself I would regret not putting my all into this business, and that although trivial to some, we did make a difference in people’s lives by simply being a warm friendly face they saw when they ordered their lunch or morning coffee.’
“Some people think running a cafe is simple, but it’s hard work. You’re managing staff, dealing with suppliers, making sure quality is consistent, handling the business side.”
But if you love it, you find a way through. And she loves it.
Steph (Sammy’s sister), Sammy, and Carole
What was your biggest break?
“Opening the cafe was the turning point for us, and word-of-mouth. We’d have people from all walks of life come to eat our food and enjoy our hospitality.’
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Mum says this to us all the time: ‘Hard work trumps talent, and it helps if you dress well while you’re working hard.’
She says that was something she learned first-hand from her father Ron, who was a tailor back in London and made suits for the Duke of Edinburgh. When they moved to Australia, he owned a successful landscaping business.
What advice would you give your younger self?
My mum says she wishes she’d applied herself more at school, looking at what my sisters and I have done – uni degrees, careers we’ve built. But she also knows her journey has been exactly what it needed to be.
When I ask her what she would tell her younger self, she says, “Your work matters. The way you treat people matters. And hard work, real, genuine hard work, will always get you where you need to go. You don’t need a fancy degree or a perfect plan. You just need to care about what you do and show up every single day ready to do it well.”
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Mumma Carole isn’t stopping anytime soon. At the ripe young age of 72 she plans on working for a little while longer.
As for where she’ll be in five years time, she’s not sure – but she tells me she’d like to stay busy.
