Retro cafe to go to auction
START your engines – vintage car enthusiast Rod Wade’s retro cafe is revving up for a hot auction.
The Upper Coomera property was a dream come true for the 75-year-old who brought to life a pitstop cafe from the ruins of a rundown bakery.
The Upper Coomera property at 382 Tamborine Oxenford Rd is a flashback in time with Coca Cola swivel chairs on the deck and checkered floors throughout.
Mr Wade bought the property, which also comes with a five-bedroom waterfront house, in 2011 and spent $500,000 transforming the bakery into a 1950s American diner.
“My dream was to turn this place into a drive-through diner and to have my cars on show,” he said.
“Originally the cafe was a bakery and when we were renovating it we decided to keep the old bakery doors and the old bakery oven.”
Mr Wade landscaped the property and put in a parking lot for up to 10 vehicles.
While the house comes with a pool and tropical design, the cafe frontage is fitted out with a men’s and ladies’ bathrooms as well as a large entertaining deck.
Mr Wade, who has a collection of 28 vintage cars including three Rolls Royces, said his diner dreams ended a month after he bought the property when his wife fell ill.
“We decided to rent it out to two ladies who opened up Happy Days Diner,” he said.
“Happy Days Diner was named after the American sitcom and it was here for a few years. The business was great, people would pull over to the side of the road and come for lunch on the way to Tamborine Mountain,” he said. “It was kind of like a pitstop cafe, it was really swinging.
“There was 50s paraphernalia everywhere, Marilyn Monroe posters on the walls and Elvis Presley tunes playing.
“It took a nose dive after the 2013 floods because the bridge access was flooded and cut the customers off from the cafe.”
Mr Wade said he wanted to see the cafe brought to life again.
“I just hope someone buys it and gives it a good go because it deserves that,” he said.
“There are so many people who drive up this road everyday, especially on the weekend. I would say even if one per cent of people stopped the cafe would be running hot again.”
Sandra Blake and Mark Colefax from Professionals Freedom Realty are marketing the property.