Step into any venue Drew Dawson has touched, and you can immediately feel his presence: the warmth, the energy, the unmistakable sense of home.
It’s no surprise he was named WAGFG 2025 Breakthrough Talent—a young chef with grit, perseverance, and a generous heart, whose goal has always been to create spaces that feel like his living room.
Now, alongside partner Charlotte Beeton, he’s embarking on an unexpected new chapter, taking over suburban cafe favourite The Cool Room. Even for a chef who never imagined running a breakfast cafe, the move feels perfectly in character.
With his pop-up kitchen Off Licence finally rooted in a permanent home, Drew is making the space unmistakably his own—and his plans stretch far beyond morning coffee and toast.
You’ve cooked across so many formats—from fine dining in Europe to produce-centric plates at Napier Quarter in Melbourne and Nieuw Ruin here, pizzas at Lola’s, some of Perth’s best sandwiches at Peggy’s, plus your own pop-up kitchen Off Licence. Basically, everything but a cafe. Was that the missing piece?
At no point did I ever think I was going to go into cafes. Breakfast has never really inspired me—for many years it was just an espresso and a cigarette.
Initially I thought about the space as a wine bar or a restaurant, and that was my main focus. I’d been looking for a permanent space for Off Licence since it started. But after I agreed to buy this place, I realised how nice it was during the day.
So the more I thought about it, I said to Charlotte that if we’re going to do this, we’ll take it over and keep it as a cafe. We can look at evenings further down the line, but I don’t ever want to lose that morning trade. And that’s how the whole project started.
We began thinking: what do we like for breakfast? What’s missing out there? And we kept coming back to the realisation that there isn’t somewhere you’d want to go two or three times a week. It felt like it would be nice to create that.
The Cool Room has long been a Fremantle favourite. How are you balancing bringing something fresh with honouring what the community has always loved about the space?
There have definitely been a couple of people who’ve come in and said, “Where’s the old menu?”
We’ve kept the name, the space is pretty much the same, and we’re doing our best to represent what we think is really good at breakfast time. The owners before us did the same—they had their opportunity to put their stamp on it, and now this is my opportunity to give people what I think makes a really good start to the day.
I understand that for a lot of people change can be scary, but at the same time it’s exciting. I’ve spent eight or nine years working towards this point. I didn’t spend that time learning all of this just to get into a space and copy somebody else. This is an expression of both mine and Charlotte’s thoughts on food and life.
How would you describe the new vibe of The Cool Room—what are you hoping people will feel when they walk in and what do you hope the venue becomes for the community?
We’re trying to build somewhere where everybody feels welcome and included, and part of a community. You come in and see your neighbours—you wave, you chat about the bins getting collected too early.
I think every neighbourhood should have a coffee shop you can walk to, and somewhere you can get pissed and walk home from—really and truly. I love the idea of being able to come in, have a full meal, a few glasses of wine, stumble home, then wake up in the morning and stumble straight back for a coffee.
Fremantle seems to keep pulling you back—Peggy’s, Lola’s, Nieuw Ruin, Beaconsfield Wine Bar, and now The Cool Room. What is it about this community that keeps you rooted here?
It’s just the best. I grew up in central London where it’s all concrete and skyscrapers. Now I live opposite the golf course—I walk for hours in the morning and it’s green, it’s trees, it smells of eucalyptus and gum. I walk down by the beach with my feet in the sand. You don’t get closer to nature than that, and I feel like that’s when I operate the best.
I spent a long time living and working in big cities, but there’s a special feeling down in Freo because the lifestyle is so good. Everybody feels the same way—people are relaxed, and it’s a real community.
You’ve taken this on with your partner, Charlotte. Have you worked together before, and how do you see your roles working side by side?
It was never really planned for us to do this together. To be honest, if it had just been an evening offering, I don’t know if it would’ve worked out the same.
She’s a fantastic baker with a real passion for pastry and bread. When we were talking about the menu, she said, “Well, will we put some things on the counter? Do you think I could bake the things that are on the counter?” And I said yeah, of course. We bounced around some ideas and landed on a few staples. There will always be a cookie, and there will always be a carrot cake—we do a really good one with pecans and it’s delicious.
Beyond that, whatever’s in season or catches her fancy will end up on the counter. The menu itself will stay pretty consistent, but the counter will always be changing.
Knowing you, this isn’t going to be just another brunch menu. What’s inspiring the menu at The Cool Room?
The menu is very European. I was joking with one of my mates that when you go to a hotel there are usually two breakfast offerings—buffet or continental. And the term continental—it’s very loose. It’s not specific, is it? Continental just means the continent of Europe.
So I guess we offer continental breakfast. There are some fried things, but generally speaking it’s a very European-inspired continental breakfast. We’ve got a Danish-style breakfast with a sourdough bun, cheese, and a boiled egg. And I do like a pork hock and potato rösti, because I think people want something fried and a bit more substantial.
Nothing on the menu is stupidly complicated. Most plates have two or three components, but I personally think every one of them is delicious. Everything I’ve put on the menu I can see becoming favourites. There’s nothing on there where I think that I’ll have to take that off in a week.
If it was up to me, I’d come in here and order the fruit plate, granola with yoghurt, and probably a round of toast. There are few beauties in life like eating a nice piece of toast, right? A bit of jam or something—just simple pleasures. I want people to feel as though they’ve gone to their mate’s house for breakfast, and every time they leave, they think wow, I love going to his house for breakfast. I want people to get the energy and nutrients to really kick-start their day.
What’s next for The Cool Room? Could we see it evolve into something more, maybe even night offerings down the track?
Nights are coming. We’ll start off doing some pop-ups and hopefully some really cool outdoor events. I had planned all of this to kick off next summer but if we can get the license we’ll start doing evening this summer. It’s exciting times.
Do you ever feel the pressure to be “the next big thing,” or are you more focused on building something steady and lasting?
No, there’s no pressure. I’ve already made it in life. I’ve got a great missus, and I live in an awesome country where everything is safe. I’ve really won and I’m happy in life. I do a bit of cooking that pays my bills and if it does well? That’s a bonus.
My whole ethos about this business is to take control and with that I lose the pressure of trying to be anything because I’ve got nothing to prove. I’ve got my own place. I’m not trying to compete with anyone. When people come through and say “hey Drew, how are you doing” I already feel famous. I don’t need much more than that. I’m very blessed.
You’ve been an example of perseverance and hard work—from the accident that nearly ended your career to winning WAGFG Breakthrough Talent Award this year. What advice would you give to young chefs just starting out?
My advice to young chefs is that it doesn’t matter how skilled you are, fundamentally the most important thing is you need to have a good attitude and you need to be kind to people. If you’ve got those two things, you can work anywhere and you can do anything. But if you’ve got a bad attitude, it doesn’t matter if you’re shit hot on the grill or whatever section, people won’t give you opportunities.
Listen and learn. Someone, everyone has something to teach. I think that’s key. Speak to other chefs and be part of the community. I think do all this, and you’ll go places.