Couple have big plans for cafe
Palmerston North’s OE Cafe, which went into liquidation this year, has been sold to a couple who ran an award- winning bakery and cafe in Scotland.
Robert Winters and Virginia Webb ran Tapa in Glasgow for 10 years.
‘‘ We’re pretty famous in Scotland,’’ said Winters, a master baker who grew up in Palmerston North. ‘‘ We were Scottish eatery of the year and last year we won the national award for recognition for service to the food industry in Scotland.’’
OE Cafe, in the Square Edge building, closed in January and the owners – Alan Cleland, Michael Cook and Milan Gagic – placed the business into voluntary liquidation.
Although it owed various parties $ 439,000, it had just $ 78 cash and $ 15,900 in assets when it closed.
The final liquidation report by Hamish Pryde and Brent Dickins of CS Insolvency this month shows that the liquidators distributed $ 27,210.92 to creditors.
The sum, which included a liquidators’ fee of $ 11,189.99, came from the initial cash balance, debtor receipts, sales, GST received and the
Robert Winters and Virginia Webb, who have bought the former OE Cafe, with their son, Otis. sale of the business for $ 22,500.
Winters said he used to frequent cafe when he was younger. ‘‘ I practically lived there.’’ He plans to reopen the cafe, under the new name of Cafe Royale, around the middle of next month. Other changes include the menu. ‘‘ We’re going to try and do a whole lot of very simple things, but do them very well. We’ll do the best sandwich in town, nice chunky, hearty food.’’
He said the cafe would be open for
the breakfast through to early dinner.
‘‘ We’re only going to do evenings for three nights a week.
‘‘ My limited market research is that places aren’t very busy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.’’
The fare would include items such as pizza and pasta.
‘‘ I think it’s quite the space and the brilliant,’’ he said.
‘‘ There are a lot of interesting people in there. It’s a very good space to be.’’ a successful use of building itself is