Our Story

born in the laneways of melbourne

In September 2009, Di & Will Keser opened the famed Hardware Société, in Melbourne's CBD, what started as a small 35 seat café now operates in three countries, with Di and Will still at the helm.

In 2014 they had a plan, having fallen head over heals in love with Paris, they purchased and renovated their first property in France. Always with the intention of opening the first international outpost there.

Then in the spring of 2016, Hardware Société Paris opened, to French a claim.  Sitting at the top of Montmatre and with a beautiful vista of Paris rooftops, our 55 seat café has gone from strength to strength.   

After ten years and several expansions in Hardware Street we relocated our flagship to Katherine Place, with a new aesthetic and the luxury of space. Simultaneously, we launched our first, self published, locally produced book, “No Eggs on Toast”, a story about us, with some of our famed recipes. Then in January 2022, we opened our third outpost, this time in Barcelona.  Di & Will relocated to Barcelona in February 2020, with big dreams and grand plans. We now have a beautiful 70 seat café with a private dining room on Carrer de Valencia, in the Eixample district to add to our family of cafes.

As Michael Harden put it, for Di & Will, exactly where Hardware Société was in terms of an address was never the point. It was more like a travelling caravan - pans and pots clanking off the back, their people and dogs packed inside along for the ride to whatever the next destination would be. So stay tuned, we don’t know where stop four on the world tour will be yet, but we are sure it will be worth the journey.