There are only three items on the menu but this Fremantle pop-up has quickly drawn a crowd in its first week of opening.
Teacher Jacqui Snyder and doctor Odetta Davison are the friends behind Douzaine, the port city’s newest oyster bar, which is tucked into a once-vacant building on Cantonment Street.
Serving bread with whipped butter, oysters by the half-a-dozen or dozen and a BYO policy, Ms Davison says it’s the “simple offering” the Fremantle hospitality scene needed.
“The thing that really stood out to us was we felt like there was maybe a gap in the market for something that was a simple offering,” she said.
“We wanted people to just be able to grab a bottle and then sit down and grab a quick dozen oysters.
“I think people were really hungry for oysters and BYO.”
Ms Snyder is a teacher by trade and said the concept of Douzaine was inspired by a trip to the south of France.
“In the July school holidays I went over to France to visit a friend in a beautiful little town called Sete. I found it really similar to Fremantle, like a port town,” she said.
“A lot of artists, musicians, music festivals and they do a lot of seafood.
“(There was) this beautiful old French couple basically with just a couple of trestle tables and some buckets of ice and seafood.”
And that’s exactly what the pair say Douzaine mimics: a “cosy” space dedicated to oysters, bread and wine.
“We settled on creating a space within a space so that it had a sense of things being close,” Ms Davison said.
“The emphasis was on the alfresco tables and dining, but you’re still really close to the preparation and the service.”
Alongside the Albany rock oysters, the pair have deliberately chosen a venue close to a bottle shop — with family-owned Wise Child Wine Store less than 200m away.
While Ms Davison and Ms Snyder said their first week had seen a slew of customers, Douzaine is unlikely to stay past its three-month stint in Fremantle.
“I think we’re here for a good time, not a long time,” Ms Davison said.
“Both Jacqui and I have other work outside of doing this, so this is literally a passion project.
“We’re only here to break even and I guess the whole point has been just to offer this thing that feels like a real gift from us to this community.”
Douzaine is open Thursdays to Sundays from 2.30pm.