PRESS RELEASE: Ex-cop turned cafe owner goes viral
An ex-cop turned café owner has gone viral on social media, after starting a TikTok and Instagram to take his followers behind the scenes of life at his café.
With 45.1k followers and 532.1k likes on TikTok, and 14.3k followers on Instagram, Wollongong local Kayahan Curtis Gunes credits the success of his cafés in part to social media.
Kayahan Gunes started his career as a police officer, following in the footsteps of his mother. After spending eight months training in Goulburn, he graduated from the academy and started his policing career in St George.
After two years working in the police force though, he realised business was where his passion truly was. Having already graduated from the University of Wollongong with a Bachelor of Business in 2017, he decided to finally pursue his dream of owning his own business with his father, Steve.
“I decided I wanted to open a café, because of my love for coffee. My entire family are big coffee lovers too. Every day that we have off, we always go for coffees,” Kayahan said.
Kayahan opened his first café in 2020 in Fairy Meadow, named the Evil Eye Café. He chose the name and theme because of its strong ties to his Turkish heritage.
“Like most people, I started to post on social media to gain more exposure for my business,” Kayahan said.
“I also wanted to show that Evil Eye Cafe isn’t just a business, but that there’s a real person behind it who has a personality and story.
“I wanted to bring joy and entertainment to people while promoting my business. The videos that I like to film are coffee or hospitality related, but also humorous and something the public can relate to.
Kayahan added that several of his own videos and posts have ended up going viral.
“One of my videos that has gone viral is where I am seen in my police uniform, before and transitioning to working in my coffee shop and running my own business,” he said.
“Customers always come in and say they’ve seen me on TikTok, and love my videos. I often get recognised in the street, and people come up to say hello and ask to take photos with me.”
