New cafe´ and bar at foot of Takitimus
Operating a cafe´ and bar on Blackmount Rd, at the foothills of the Takitimu Mountains, has always been a long held dream of the Robertson family.
The family had talked about building and opening a cafe´ on their farm ever since the family first moved to Blackmount.
‘‘When my parents, Valmai and the late Gray Robertson, first purchased Blackmount Station in 1963, mum said it would be a great place to have a cafe´ with tea and scones available for the community and people passing by, and 59 years later we have realised their dream,’’ Neil Robertson said.
‘‘Unfortunately Dad passed away in January 2020, so he never got to see the reality of his and Mum’s vision.
‘‘We have talked about it over the years but nothing happened until Jude and Neil Nicolson, from Monowai, approached us. We have formed a partnership with them and our son Greg to run the business.’’
‘‘Jude, a qualified chef, is the boss, she runs the business, Donna helps with the baking and us two Neil’s help with the dishes and general work around the cafe,’’ Robertson said.
Three years in the making, as Covid-19 interfered with the build, the cafe´ was built with five shipping containers welded together, tonnes of concrete, power poles support the three sided verandah and macrocarpa timber milled off the farm was used for the decking’s wooden beams for support, plus bar leaners and whisky and wine racks.
‘‘I’d seen a container build and was impressed with it – it had the character that we were looking for as we wanted to keep the build authentically rustic and in keeping with the area. People like to touch the power poles which were the original poles that took the power from Monowai to Te Anau through our farm.
‘‘We have been opened for the past three months – the business is ticking over nicely, weekends are going well. We are lucky to have excellent staff that does a wonderful job for us – we certainly like the vibe that we have ended up with, it’s a nice place to be. The community have been very supportive especially our fish & chips Friday evenings which have been a great success.’’
All involved in the business are enjoying the added diversity that the cafe has added to their lives. ‘‘The uniqueness of the building gets people here in the first place but it’s Jude’s food that brings them back,’’ Robertson said.
Part-owner Donna Robertson said starting the build at the beginning of Covid-19 added another dimension to the difficulties of the build.
‘‘Covid didn’t stop us, but it did make the build a lot more stressful and longer, however it made us more determined than ever to get the cafe´ opened,’’ Donna said.
‘‘Our food on offer is always evolving. We started off as snacks but now it’s more full meals which happened when our liquor licence was granted. We are also getting well known for our home baking and our cabinet foods as well as our exceptional coffees, we get the coffee beans called ‘‘Roar’’ from a Lumsden company who roast them themselves on their premises in Lumsden,’’ Jude Nicolson said.
Jude Nicolson has been a chef for many years, they built a home in Monowai in 1998 and after a stint in Australia moved back to live permanently in Monowai.
‘‘And the rest is history. We made an excellent choice moving back to Monowai and joining forces with the Robertson family now we look forward to the summer and entering everybody. We are all excited for the next stage that the cafe is going to go to,’’ Jude Nicolson said.
‘‘The uniqueness of the building gets people here in the first place but it’s Jude’s food that brings them back.’’ Neil Robertson