Our Story

Wildflower started in Wallsend, Newcastle in 2018. Jack and Ri Bingham were 24 and 26 at the time, brand new to the business world, and decided to build a cafe from scratch in 100 days. They blogged every single one of those days. (Looking back, neither of us can believe we actually did it.)

The cafe opened, the community showed up, and somewhere along the way we decided we wanted to do more than just coffee. In 2020 we quit our other jobs, opened Wildflower Space next door, and started designing apparel.

We had a second cafe for a while (Wildflower City at The Station in the Newcastle CBD). It's not open anymore. The Wallsend cafe and store is everything now, and that suits us perfectly.

The mission

The whole thing comes back to one idea: you are valuable.

It's not a tagline, it's the actual reason we make the coffee we make and the clothes we make and the choices we make. We believe that one good moment in someone's day can ripple out through their workplace, their family, their suburb. That's the bit we get to be part of.

If you wear one of our pieces, our hope is that you walk a bit taller. If you grab a coffee from us, our hope is that you leave a bit lighter than when you walked in. Everything else is just details.

Push the limits, be courageous, dream deeper

That's the tagline (and the message on more than a few of our tee designs). It came from a real place. Jack and Ri have always made decisions like they're already 10 years down the road. Invest in the quality even when it's slower. Make the harder call when it's the right one. Take the risk when the safe road feels boring.

It's not always smart on paper. It's always what we'd do anyway.

Who we are now

Jack runs Wildflower Space (the apparel and lifestyle side) essentially solo, six days a week. He designs all the apparel in Photoshop, shoots all the campaigns, runs the supplier relationships, and packs and ships every online order himself.

Ri runs Wildflower Espresso with a team of 8 cafe staff. She directs the shoots, writes a lot of the social content, and connects with the community in a way Jack will openly admit he wishes came as naturally to him.

We're husband and wife, business partners, and parents to a small army of regulars who feel like family.

Where we're going

The bigger dream sits past where we are right now. Creative spaces other people can use. A podcast studio. A photo wall. Ways to help other people follow their dreams the way we've been lucky enough to follow ours. We're not there yet. Our current spot is rented and small. But we know where we're headed and we're moving toward it slowly, intentionally, and with a lot of help from the people who've shown up for us so far.

If you've ever bought a coffee, bought a tee, told a mate about us, replied to one of our emails, or just sat in our cafe for a while, thank you. We mean that.