Cafe reopening on Thursday; outside parking only
NEARLY six months after an outofcontrol vehicle ploughed through the front door, Coast Cafe at Kakanui is set to reopen.
Owners Wayne and Sarah Bugden plan to open for business on Thursday, almost six months to the day their business was destroyed, leaving the couple emotionally and financially devastated.
About 10.40pm on October 20, Jamie Skudder, who held a learner driver’s licence at the time, was driving an unregistered, unwarranted and illegally modified 1994 Ford Falcon with four passengers on Beach Rd at Kakanui.
He drove through a 50kmh zone at high speed before he lost control of the vehicle, slid across both lanes of the road and smashed into the Beach Rd cafe.
The building was extensively damaged.
While the Bugdens struggled to come to terms with the aftermath, they saw it as an opportunity to improve certain aspects of the popular eatery, Mr Bugden said.
‘‘There’s a bit of a change of colour scheme inside and it’s a lot tidier presentation inside. There’s a bit of an easier flow to the outside dining area, but we haven’t changed it a lot, really.
‘‘We’ve gone down the surfing side of things too, the local Kakanui theme.’’
He said people could expect the same ‘‘warm hospitality and food’’ as they had in the past.
After missing out on the busy summer season, assessing damage and dealing with insurers, Mr Bugden looked forward to opening day.
‘‘It’s been a long, drawnout process. Hopefully things go smoothly when we do reopen and we’ve got everything sorted correctly.’’
In March, Skudder was sentenced to six months’ community detention, nine months’ supervision and 80 hours’ community work, and disqualified from driving for 15 months on charges of dangerous driving causing injury and driving while disqualified.