When we started Hamlet back in 2016 we had no real idea what was ahead of us. We believed we could make a difference in people’s lives and wanted to see how we could combine our passion for hospitality with helping people, to create lasting change in the community.
Hamlet is built on a community foundation and we are fortunate to have developed long lasting relationships with our customers who have shown us continued support.
Emily Briffa
Hamlet CEO and co-founder
I am often asked why I started Hamlet, I always find it a strange question to answer. Because to me, it always felt a bit like Hamlet chose me, like a series of events occurred to lead me in a certain direction and then I was sort of pulled towards this thing that was so much bigger than myself.
In terms of my “why?”- when I was in my early 20s I had returned from living in China and my brother Jarrod told me about an extremely ambitious idea he had to start a social enterprise café. Jarrod had no start-up capital, very little experience working in hospitality and no experience running a business. What my brother did have was pure determination, the ability to engage people with his ideas and an ability to connect with people in a way that created a real sense of community.
Kinfolk opened in Melbourne in 2010 and I worked there for almost 4 years, starting as a volunteer to help out and working my way up to head chef. In 2014, I moved to Tasmania for a job and thought I might be here for 6 months to a year. As the story always seems to go, I fell in love with this place. And as I began to find a home here, I started to be more exposed to the issue of unemployment in Tasmania, and wondered if an enterprise similar to Kinfolk could work here focussing solely on assisting people to build the skills they needed so they could get their foot in the door.
Our People
Meet a few of our incredible participants:
“Hamlet is a place where Adam can just be Adam”