The Dave Drake Story. Real Coffee and Old School Connections
If you ask Dave Drake where his story really begins, he will tell you it started long before the coffee beans, long before the little shop with the old-school memorabilia, and long before Retro Bike Night became a fixture on the local calendar.
It began as a kid in the Tallebudgera Valley, rummaging through tip runs with his dad, collecting bits and pieces of history that would one day line the shelves of a café he hadn’t yet built.
And it began the day his father sat him on a tiny minibike and taught him how to ride.
Motorcycles. Coffee. Connection.
Those three threads have been woven through Dave’s life for more than forty years, sometimes tightly, and today, they are the backbone of something quietly powerful happening inside his much-loved Original Bike Café (OBC).
Like many people, Dave parked his childhood passions when adulthood arrived, but the idea of a coffee shop, one filled with character, motorcycles and memories, never left him.
“I had it in my head for twenty years” Dave says.
“I just wanted a little café that felt like me.”
The seed eventually found space to grow in 2019.
Dave bought a stainless-steel coffee cart from a woman selling it as a side business.
He took it to campgrounds for long weekends, pouring coffees for five hours in the mornings and beer for himself in the afternoons.
This was the start of the Original Bike Café.
The first brick-and-mortar shop was a tiny 24-square-metre space down an alleyway on Torquay Road, and then onto his current premises opposite Officeworks on Taylor Street.
Dave’s café is filled with decades of collected treasures, cameras, radios, jackets, golden books, pinstriping wheels from the 60’s, and a miniature Singer sewing machine gifted by a family friend.
The regulars grew to around 120 a day, from veterans, retirees, young riders, new locals, and people simply chasing a flat white made the way Dave insists coffee should be, without pretension.
“If you want caramel or ten sugars, have it. I’m not judging you,” he says. “Coffee is about comfort, not rules.”
This year, Dave realised something meaningful was happening inside the OBC.
Strangers were talking. Veterans were checking in on each other.
People were sharing pieces of their life without fear of awkwardness or judgement.
One regular has coined the OBC “The Barbershop.”
Another comes in on quiet days just to sit, no words needed.
A few bring in cherished items from their own pasts.
Some come to reminisce, others come to escape.
But all of them come because the space feels human.
“I think we are lacking places where you can just go, sit down, have a chat and then get on with your day,” Dave says.
“People want that again.”
In that vein and an idea from an old-school local rocker named Ben Rowe, a retro-themed night for riders was born, where motorbikes meet mental health.
“We called it Retro Bike Night at the OBC because it suits the shop, but anyone is welcome. You don’t even need a motorcycle”.
When the first event rolled around in November, Dave expected maybe five people. Instead, fifty-four bikes and around sixty people filled the car park.
The most recent event drew even more. And what do they talk about?
“Life,” Dave says.
“Just life. It’s the same as surfers sitting on the point watching sets come in. Shared interests, shared space, shared moments.”
“Older riders arrive wearing jackets they have had for decades. Younger riders come to learn. Some people come alone. Others come because it’s the only time in the month they feel completely themselves”.
To anyone thinking about turning up but feeling hesitant, Dave has a simple message:
“You just don’t know until you try. Come down. Everybody’s welcome. Walk in, have a look around, grab a drink, shake someone’s hand. You might meet someone you never expected.”
The next Retro Bike Night at the OBC will be held Wednesday, 28 January 2026, where you will find the magic that happens when coffee, engines and old-fashioned conversation meet.
Head to the Retro Bike Night at the OBC on Facebook for more details.
