A Blairgowrie teen says he has launched the town’s first evening café using money he has earned since the age of 12.
The Jungle Café opens for business in Leslie Street on Thursday, April 20.
With daily opening hours of 10am to 8pm it becomes the first café in Blairgowrie to trade beyond 5pm.
Its owner is Mateusz Piotr Jazdzewski, 19, who is closing and converting European supermarket MJMarket Euro Foods, which he opened in July 2022.
Mateusz, who moved to Blairgowrie from Poland when he was seven years old, says both enterprises were funded using money he has earned in his teenage years.
“We are quite poor but I decided to try and change that and influence others into doing their own thing,” he said.
This feature outlines Mateusz’s entrepreneurial background and reveals what customers can expect in his new café.
School did not fulfil the entrepreneur
Mateusz spent his early years in the city of Gdansk on the north coast of Poland.
In 2009 his father Mariusz, a painter and decorator, moved to Blairgowrie and lived with his mother-in-law who already resided in the town.
A year later Manusz saved up sufficient money to bring wife Milena and their children Mateusz, Natalia (now 16) and Philip (now 13) to Perthshire.
Mateusz says he quickly learnt English and helped his parents with translation and paying bills.
He was initially a primary school pupil at St Stephen’s before moving to Rattray aged 10.
At Blairgowrie High he enjoyed woodwork but, overall, felt that school wasn’t for him.
“I was never a school person,” Mateusz said.
“I never really got into trouble but I always had the mindset that I wanted to start my own business.”
From paper rounds to running own store
The first step on that path was taking on a number of paper rounds in Blairgowrie when he was 12.
This gave Mateusz the working bug and he took to Facebook to advertise his grass-cutting services. He additionally cleaned cars and driveways.
“I had also had a phone repair business that I did at home,” he said.
“I repaired phones, laptops and tablets.”
At 15 he left school to work at Blairgowrie Holiday Park in Rattray and then had a stint at a car garage in the town.
Next stop was homeware discount store Nickel ‘n’ Dime, where he stayed for three years.
By last summer, Mateusz had put away enough money to open his own European supermarket in Blairgowrie.
After a promising start he noticed a decline in trade.
“It was mainly aimed at Polish people,” he said.
“Not all of them will support other Polish people.
“Some went shopping somewhere else and would even go to Dundee or Perth to get just one thing when they could have got the same thing from mine.
“Footfall dropped, and with school holidays and people going away it would have dropped even more.
“So I am now taking drastic action.”
Eatery has a jungle theme
This has involved swiftly converting the store to form Jungle Café, where the decor will be based on its name.
“Since it’s something different it will be jungle themed,” Mateusz said.
“The wooden tables are of a burnt style and everything will feel like you are in a jungle, with green colours, dark colours, wood, plenty of plants.
“It makes you feel like you are around plants constantly.
“It looks brilliant.”
The café will be a family affair with Mateusz serving, mother Milena cooking and Philip helping when school work allows.
Home-made food and drink
Jungle Café will offer home-made food such as fish and chips, soups, and steaks.
There will be cakes, waffles, crepes, milkshakes and pancakes with many different fillings.
Coffee types vary from plain to the likes of latte, latte macchiato and flat white.
Customers can either take away or eat in. Mateusz hopes to add four tables to the existing five that each have space for four people.
“There is nothing like this in Blairgowrie at the moment,” he said.
‘Lone wolf’ to help youngsters
While business success is the top priority, Mateusz also wants to give young people employment opportunities via Skills Development Scotland.
“At the shop I had a couple of people who came in and got a manager certificate,” he said.
“And it will be the same with the café.
“I will be looking to employ young people and give them the opportunity to get a skills certificate out of it.
“Once you have that you can just about get a job anywhere.
“I have always tried to help others, even though I never accepted help myself.
“I was always a lone wolf and by myself.”
Café ‘will run at the top notch’
Mateusz has made great strides for such a young man.
But he knows the new café has to pay its bills to maintain the momentum.
“I am running quite low on money,” he said.
“It was all saved up from work so I have nothing in loans.
“Getting to this point has taken longer than I wanted it to take.
“But if it all happens quite rapidly you can miss some important points and that is one thing I am not going to do.
“I am going to make sure the café is running at the top notch.”
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