Harry’s Cafe de Wheels sold to German master butcher

• Icon review: Harry's Cafe de Wheels

“We’re called Harry’s Cafe de Wheels, but have you tried our coffee?” asks Tino Dees, the new owner of Australia’s most famous pie cart. “It’s shocking. Finding a way to make good coffee and serve it quickly is going to be our biggest challenge.”

Dees, who also owns Sydney-based smallgood wholesaler the German Butchery, took control of Harry’s in August.

The master butcher wants to open more than 100 Harry’s locations around Australia and has firm ideas of what direction the 73-year-old business should take: changes to the menu, store design and Ultimo factory are in the works, and there’s even talks of putting Harry’s pies in the sky.

“I’ve had some conversations with Qantas about it,” said Dees. “I think it would be fantastic to be served a little Harry’s pie and mini hotdog on a flight into Sydney.”

Former fruit-truck driver Harry “Tiger” Edwards opened the original Harry’s caravan in 1945 near Woolloomooloo’s Garden Island naval dockyard to provide sailors, wharfies and socialites with late-night pies and crumbed sausages. In 2004 the stall was recognised with a heritage listing from the National Trust as a place of cultural and historic interest for future Australians. Elton John once held a press conference there.

Edwards died in 1979, aged 67. Vietnam veteran Michael Hannah purchased Harry’s in 1988 and franchised the business to open 13 more stores in NSW (and one in Shenzhen, China) before deciding he was at the right age for retirement in May. Dees was visiting Harry's Woolloomooloo site as a customer and after hearing the business was going up for sale, made an offer before it went to market.

Dees is tight-lipped on the sale price but admits he paid too much. “Because of the plans we have in place for Harry’s, however, that number becomes irrelevant. It’s an iconic brand,” he said.

The 44-year-old moved to Australia from Germany in 2008 to work as a meat industry consultant.

He opened The German Butchery opened in 2012 and Dees has won more than 170 awards for his sausages, hams and bacon.

Customers can expect a stronger focus on hotdogs as Harry’s expands.

“I don’t think there has been a franchise in Australia that has really done hotdogs well,” Dees said. “I love pies, don’t get me wrong, but I’m German so I also really love hotdogs. Instead of having one type of dog we want three. We looking a doing a standard hotdog sausage, a chorizo-type version and one that’s more in the classic barbecue style.”

Fans of Harry’s famous Tiger (that is a meat pie topped with mushy peas, mashed potato and gravy) can take comfort; it will stay on the menu and remain unchanged.

Harry's Timeline

1936 Harry "Tiger" Edwards buys the old Fairfax building canteen and plants it in a prime spot outside Garden Island naval dockyard. It is known as Cafe de Fairfax.

1938 Edwards leaves Sydney on the brink of World War II to fight with the Australian Imperial Force. The pie cart is shuttered.

1945 War is over and Edwards returns to Sydney. The pie cart is relaunched as Harry's.

1970 Austrian engineer and Port Kembla steelworker Alex Kuronya buys the business from Edwards.

1974 Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders drops by and orders three pies with peas.

1985 The original salt spray-rusted caravan is donated to the Powerhouse Museum.

1986 Elton John holds a press conference at Harry's to promote an Australian tour.

1988 Kuronya sells Harry's to Michael Hannah, former manager of comedian Rodney Rude.

1992 Harry's begins making its own pies in Ultimo after Hannah's pie supplier goes bust.

1998 Harry's Newcastle opens in an original Bondi tram.

2000 Legendary French chef Michel Roux visits Harry's and proclaims the pie as "real food" and that "fashion comes and goes, but this will be here forever".

2004 The Woolloomooloo site is recognised with a heritage listing from the National Trust.

2018 Tino Dees purchases the business and become the first owner of Harry's with a professional background in the food industry.