New owner for Napier Rd cafe
A new Palmerston North cafe and a motorcycle salesyard are joining forces, hoping they’ll complement each other and attract more customers.
Robyn Eastment bought Cafe Soskys, on Napier Rd, after the current owner decided to move back to Auckland to be closer to his family, and is set to take over in two weeks.
Over the four-month sales process Eastment, who plans to rebrand the business as Cafe 116, met AFC Motorcycles owner Brendan Tootall, who recently bought the whole building to house an expanded saleyard.
The pair hit it off and began discussing ways their businesses could boost each other. Now, they plan to have a grand opening for both in October.
Eastment has worked in the food industry her whole life and has dreamed of opening her own eatery since she started out at a Robert Harris, but the timing never seemed right.
‘‘I saw Cafe Soskys was for sale [and] I thought at this stage in my life if I don’t do it now it’ll never happen.’’
Eastment planned to close the cafe for renovations and ease in her own ideas while keeping the best of Cafe Soskys after the October reopening.
‘‘We don’t want to upset the apple cart.
‘‘The cafe’s got some lovely and loyal customers that have been coming for years because they like it.’’
Eastment said she aimed to give Cafe 116 a home-like feel, so it was equally inviting to the young mothers and bikers and cyclists.
AFC Motorcycles was running out of space at its Main St salesyard, so Tootall planned to move it to Napier Rd where there was three times the display space.
He was still waiting on resource consent to start the fitout and refurbishing, but Eastment looking to open Cafe 116 about the same time was a real stroke of luck, he said.
For example, when AFC holds a product-release evening, Cafe 116 could host the gathering before moving to the showroom, and he could hire Eastment to cater.
‘‘I thought, at this stage in my life, if I don’t do it now it’ll never happen.’’ Cafe Soskys owner Robyn Eastment