Farm-to-table cafe is cream of the crop
Penny Sonnenburg and Brian McGrath are keen to welcome travellers back to Orepuki, but with a few requirements: only if you’re keeping safe, and bonus points if you’re keen to get your hands dirty.
The couple run Orepuki Beach Cafe´, a farm-to-plate restaurant that is one of only two hospitality venues in the tiny town of Orepuki, about a 50-minute drive from Invercargill.
All ingredients in the cafe’s meals are sourced from gardens behind the venue or the couple’s 20-acre farm, including their own meats.
‘‘We practise regenerative farming ... which is low inputs, restoring waterways ... we don’t have to use fertiliser or nitrates. So we keep pretty busy focusing on our backyard,’’ McGrath said.
The cafe doesn’t advertise, instead relying on word of mouth to attract visitors from all across the South Island – which means customers are usually unaware their meal was grown only a few metres away.
‘‘We don’t make a big noise about it ... We advertised way back when we first started, but then all you could think about was how many blue cod meals you’d need to sell to make it back. We’re pretty big in Southland now, it’s [Orepuki] a whole get-away area,’’ he said.
Before Covid-19 they would regularly utilise ‘‘woofers’’, backpackers who work and live on the farm, to harvest their gardens, but now the couple – who also double as the establishments chefs – are spending an increasing amount of time harvesting produce – and their staff are getting in on it too.
‘‘I’m the main gardener, but everyone’s involved now. It gets them into a different environment, the staff really like it ... but we only send them out when it’s sunny,’’ he laughed.
Business has been down a little in recent weeks, but McGrath didn’t believe they had struggled in comparison to some venues, with trade being steady throughout the remainder of the pandemic.
Slightly lower customer numbers had been beneficial because it allowed staff to be moved between the garden and cafe more easily, he said, although the couple was looking forward to having more time to work on their farm once more staff were available. ‘‘We’ll be looking forward to the availability of more staff. We have had interest from an American to come over and woof already ... so it will be good to have more time again.’’
Whilst McGrath was keen to welcome tourists back to the cafe once more, he also wanted to reiterate the importance of keeping safe and limiting unnecessary exposure during the peak of the Omicron wave in Southland.
‘‘We don’t want to downplay the pandemic. We’re still doing social distancing, and we’re still wearing masks, and know the reasons why we’re wearing masks,’’ he said.
‘‘The responsibility is up to the individual now, but we’re pretty happy with what we’ve been asked to do.’’
‘‘I’m the main gardener, but everyone’s involved now. The staff really like it ... but we only send them out when it’s sunny.’’ Brian McGrath