The long way round
Raphael put on his first apron at sixteen. Eleven years later the list reads like someone collecting stamps: two-hatted Kisumé in Melbourne, Michelin-starred Galvin La Chapelle and BRAT in London, Chiltern Firehouse, a season at Hotel Christiania in the French Alps, a private yacht off Sicily, and group head chef at La Boulangerie and Co in Chicago.
After all those kitchens, the part that mattered most was closer to home. A stint at Sal Salis, the eco-resort up in Exmouth, is where Western Australia finally got him.
It was here that I completely fell in love with Western Australia, the fishing, the weather, the lifestyle.
Raphael Beilharz
Five long years overseas, then homesickness and a tangle of visa issues pointed him home. He was twenty-seven when he opened a shop of his own, which is either daring or daft depending on the day you ask.
Why sandwiches
After a decade of fine dining, the appeal was doing one thing properly instead of forty things at once.
I really love venues that do one thing extremely well and become specialists in their craft. I'm massively inspired by the delis of New York like Katz's Deli, or in Melbourne, places like Hectors Deli or Hugo's Deli.
Raphael Beilharz
That is where the New York streak comes from. The Reuben, the pastrami, and the NY Bodega, a smoked bacon and fried egg brioche built the way the bodegas do it. Breakfast is a bit of a crusade.
They're an item which should be made freshly to order, with a runny yolk, on a warm bun with crispy bacon, a great sauce and maybe some nice cheese.
Raphael Beilharz · on breakfast sandwiches
Which is a polite way of saying nothing sits in a display case waiting for you.
Why Murray Street
The site was the whole reason. Number 117 came with a full commercial kitchen already attached, fridges, benches and a dining area, which for a first-time owner is the difference between opening this year and opening in three.
The thing that drew me most to the space was the opportunity, the space has a complete commercial kitchen attached.
Raphael Beilharz
That kitchen is why the menu looks the way it does. There is room to actually make things, so we make them.
Made here, not bought in
Nine house sauces. Pickled onions, cucumbers, sauerkraut, marinated eggplant and chickpeas, all done in-house. Syrups and strawberry purée for the iced drinks. Doughnuts filled with crème pâtissière when we get to them.
What we do not make, we buy properly. Most of the bread comes from Mary Street Bakery, with the shokupan milk bread and the gluten-free buns from Little Home Bakery. The coffee is Blacklist, on their Opus blend.
Nearly everything on the board can be built your way, which Raphael has strong feelings about.
You can seemingly add a chicken schnitzel to absolutely anything and it will almost always be a net positive!
Raphael Beilharz
Since June
Big Buns opened in June 2026 and word got around the way it does in a city this size, one lunch break at a time.
The response has been unbelievable, at first people didn't take much notice of us, maybe because we are new or our sandwiches are more expensive than the ones down the street. But once people try something from us, they almost always come back and even bring friends.
Raphael Beilharz
Quotes and career details from Perth is OK, who came in and wrote about us early.