Crooked Kitchen Leads Local Charge in Bendigo Cafe Expansion

Crooked Kitchen will open its new dine-in cafe location next Tuesday at the old Park Corner site next to Rosalind Park.

Multiple operators time fresh starts

Everbean Cafe is opening next week for takeaway at 1 Queen Street in the former Gillies Pie Shop building. Frankie and Co has reopened at a new High Street site four months after a suspicious fire forced its original Wills Street store to close. Beacon Lighting has opened a brand-new showroom in Kangaroo Flat located right next to its old store on High Street. Officeworks has opened its new, larger 1,600-square-metre store at the Kangaroo Flat Homemaker Centre, nearly double the size of the previous outlet.

Small and medium enterprises constitute over 95% of registered businesses in Greater Bendigo. The local micro-business sector has seen a steady 2.3% uplift in the last two years.

Why the timing stands out

Prime Urban Group’s $55 million Prime Business Park in East Bendigo has completed its first stage, adding over 10,000 square metres of flexible workspace. The industrial vacancy rate sits at 0.5%. These conditions give established operators room to shift locations and grow floor space without leaving the city.

Bendigo Guided Tours, a family-run business celebrating Bendigo's gold rush heritage, won Best New Business at the 2025 Victorian Tourism Awards. The pattern of measured moves by existing local operators matches the same steady growth recorded among micro-businesses in pockets such as Strathfieldsaye and Maiden Gully.

Residents can check the Be.Bendigo online business directory for updated addresses and trading hours of the newly opened venues.