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Downtown Warkworth will be getting a brand new café when The Oaks on Neville opens later this month, but local coffee and cake lovers should quickly feel at home there.
That’s because the 45-seat space has been taken on by Susan and Des Vize, who have been running Chocolate Brown café and chocolaterie in nearby Mill Street since 2015.
The Oaks Café by Chocolate Brown will have the same coffee and a similar menu to the original venue, but with variations aimed not only at village residents, but local business people.
“We’ll have the same themes, the same favourites, but with lighter options. There will be more cabinet food options for pick up and go, more salads with meat options and a more business-oriented sit-in menu,” Susan says. “We’ll also be licensed and have wine available at a later date.”
The café will have a covered courtyard to the side and a library alcove, with comfortable chairs, a book case, magazines and newspapers.
“We’ll have a big round table to sit at, so people can read, do the crossword, or read a magazine,” Susan says.
The Oaks residents will have their own internal entrance to the café, giving them the option of taking drinks and food back to tables and chairs set up in the village’s adjoining communal lounge.
The café will also have bifold doors at the front, allowing it to be open to the road entrance area in warm weather and, later on, there will be an outdoor garden courtyard between the café and the back of the old Warkworth hotel. It will be open seven days a week from 6am to 5pm, and on some evenings in the future.
The Oaks Café by Chocolate Brown will also be providing fresh meals on request for residents to have in their homes, as well providing a new range of frozen ready meals available for purchase by residents and customers alike.
“This is not just a normal café we’re leasing, it’s a lot more than that. It’s a partnership. We’re providing services to the residents, which are also available to other customers,” Susan says. “We will have a special freezer in the cafe with ready meals for residents or anyone who comes in. We’re making frozen because it keeps freshest. And everything will be made by our chefs, nothing will come from outside, it will all be Chocolate Brown.”
Susan is aiming eventually to develop a range of 50 different meals in three different sizes – for one, two or four people – and The Oaks residents will also have access to their own after-hours freezer full of meals if they want something to eat when the café and shops are closed.
There will also be an extensive new loyalty scheme encompassing food as well as coffee, and the café will be offering a catering service to local businesses and groups.
“It’s a little bit smaller and there’s not much storage space, so we’re going to have to use our ‘mothership’ to do a lot of baking and making. But it’s going to be good. It’s exciting.”
