Fat Cow Cafe dries off for good
You can either lay down and say ‘poor me’, or you can use it to springboard you to the next goal. Fat Cow Cafe owner Warren Smith
South Taranaki’s only bovinethemed cafe is closing its doors.
The Fat Cow Cafe owners Warren and Shirley Smith are ‘‘mooving on’’ from the business that made them a household name in Hawera.
But far from calling it quits, the pair are evolving after Fonterra declined to renew their lease.
Warren Smith said while it was disappointing they were losing their prime spot, they were set for their next big challenge.
‘‘You can either lay down and say ‘poor me’, or you can use it to springboard you to the next goal,’’ he said.
Smith said they would keep their focus centred on gluten free products with Olive’s Pantry and Catering.
He said while a few finer details needed to be sorted, they were keeping all the same contact numbers.
The couple were both made redundant from Manaia’s Yarrows Family Bakers in 2011.
But rather than leave the dis- trict, they took over the cafe lease for the former Dairyland restaurant at Whareroa, which was closed in 2009.
And Smith takes pride in knowing he has helped his staff gain experience in the food industry.
Whareroa operations manager Hamish McCook said Fonterra was not renewing the lease agreement because it intended to use the facility for its own operations.
Dairyland was built by Kiwi Cooperative Dairies in 1997 after public demand for an information and visitor centre at Whareroa.
It was mothballed by Fonterra in 2005 and then re-opened as Southgate Cafe in 2008 before closing about a year later.