A Singleton must stop. A rabbit hole of vintage finds, greenery & rustic food
Singleton may seem like a faraway destination, however, with the super-slick Hunter Expressway chopping the drive time down to an hour, plus a little treasure like Worn Out Wares and WOW Flowers at the end, it makes complete sense for a day trip or even just a breakfast or lunch outing.
Chatting with owner Louise Christensen, she provided some insight into this incredible little business.
"I’ve had the business for fourteen years and even after all that time it still doesn’t really feel like work. It hasn’t always looked like this, it's definitely grown and evolved over that time.
"After about 5 or 6 years into the business it was either keep it as it is or allow it to grow. I was getting quite a lot of requests to extend the menu so we decided to refurbish the kitchen and evolve the menu, we also moved the florist into the space next door to create a bigger cafe space and the business has just grown from there.
"Now we do breakfast and lunch, morning and afternoon teas and we trade 7 days a week, it’s quite an extensive menu that I like to describe as rustic, with an emphasis on using simple, fresh ingredients and presenting them beautifully.
"The business is very much a family one, my eldest daughter, Anna, is a florist, Meg my youngest daughter is a barista and my middle daughter, Lili, who lives in Sydney helps with the social media, which is not my area of expertise. Mum and Dad are also involved, mum helps to look after the plants and dad does all the handyman work, it’s really lovely that the whole family is involved in some way."
"Food has always been my background and now that’s what really helps drive the business, it’s become a destination and an experience for my guests. You can’t eat online, yet anyway [laughs] but ultimately it’s the diversity, the floristry, the food and the shopping.
"When I first started the shop there was way more vintage in the store, my passion has always been vintage, which I’ve passed onto all my girls, but unfortunately I don’t have the time these days to source as much as I would like, it’s extremely time consuming, but the combination of old and new gives it life and a nice mix. It’s everything I love thrown into a shop."
