AS VOTED BY YOU THE WINNERS ARE...
BLUE OLIVE CAFE & RESTAURANT THE ESPLANADE, PARADISE POINT
THE MILLERS HANDS ESPRESSO RAILWAY STREET, MUDGEERABA
It’s a first-ever tie at the top of this week’s ‘Best of’ poll. Take a bow the Blue Olive Cafe & Restaurant at Paradise Point and The Millers Hands Espresso at Mudgeeraba. At the Blue Olive Cafe (that’s their steak sandwich with its tasty side of fries in the picture) their best offering sounds as good as it looks. It features a minimum of 150g of rib eye fillet, sun-dried tomatoes, and the secret – according to co-owner Linda McCabe — is her partner John’s homemade onion jam which really brings out the flavours. “It’s hearty, it’s no-nonsense and lovingly prepared,” Linda says, adding: “It is a really luscious steak sandwich. It’s not for the faint-hearted — you need to be hungry.” That’s because it’s not just the sandwich but it comes with salad and hand cut chips too. Linda says partner John is the brains and brawn behind the operation and known locally as the “deaf chef” because of his inability to hear. “People have really bought into the story of John, he’s such a lovely guy — he’s deaf and manages to run the restaurant singehandedly. He’s managed to develop a way to communicate with the staff even though he doesn’t sign and they don’t sign. Sometimes it goes a bit awry but this is a guy who didn’t want to be defined by his disability.” Linda adds that at the Blue Olive they don’t try to be too fancy and are all about serving up good food at a decent price in a place with a pleasant atmosphere. The Irish couple ended up taking on the Blue Olive even though Linda thought John was “crazy” to do so. “Me, the bank manager, his friends all told him he was crazy – he doesn’t let the fact he’s deaf get in the way at all but he couldn’t do it without his staff being exceptionally patient.” Meanwhile, over at The Millers Hands Espresso, owner Justin Walker says a big reason they’re popular with lots of local clientele is they use allnatural seasonal produce in their constantly-changing sandwich offerings. Justin, with years of experience as a finedining chef, says none of their sandwiches is more than $9 and they also offer bagels and croissants. “I’ve been a chef and travelled around the world and when I came home I didn’t have enough money to build my own little restaurant and had owned espresso bars before. We wanted something simple,” he tells Coast Weekend. “We have good coffee, cold-press juices, lots of teas. A big part of it is so parents could basically get something good for their kids’ lunches for school so they didn’t have to be buying something that’s full of crap or processed minging ham,” Justin adds. Justin says his focus is on sustainability food offerings and while a fullblown restaurant in the future isn’t out of the question, he enjoys having weekends nowadays. The Millers Hands is open 6am to 2.30pm, Monday to Friday but closes on weekends. Justin says it’s known for a friendly, welcoming atmosphere and gets away from that “hipster” thing “where the staff are too cool to talk to you when you walk into the joint”.