Eden café Cuppaz has responded to the closure of the Daybreak Café, moving to fill the void left by the popular early morning stop.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Located at the bottom of town at the Caltex service station site, the Daybreak Café was a favourite of early morning truck drivers, with its former manager Joy-Anne McGovern saying truckies were “devastated” upon learning of its closure.
Cuppaz commenced new trading hours on Monday, opening two hours earlier in an attempt to capitalise on the opportunity.
Manager Graham White said his Imlay Street café is now open from 6am, from Monday through to Saturday, and would most likely open an hour later on Sundays.
“This morning was the first time, and it was definitely worthwhile for us to open up earlier; it should push a bit more business up the street,” he said on Monday.
“Obviously the weather is a bit more conducive to hot meals at the moment, so we’ll look at it in time and see what happens.
“We support most of the sporting and community groups around town when we can and this is just another way this business can support the community.
“I spoke to Joy-Anne on Saturday, and now that they’ve closed there is an opportunity there for others to open up earlier.
“If we make a bit of a morning, there won’t be as much pressure on us and we might even close up earlier of an afternoon to leave a bit floating around for everyone else.”
S2 manager Michelle Mam said she would not be making any changes to trading hours at her café, located next door to Eden Public School.
She said she is not considering any new hours because of her commitments at her other business, the Golden Ocean Chinese Restaurant, and that S2 would continue to operate from 8am-4pm, Monday to Saturday.
“We do have specials for our morning customers though, including egg and bacon rolls and coffee deals,” Michelle said.
“But because I also have a night-time business, I’m not going to make any changes at this business.”
SPROUT Eden manager Karen Lott said that, at this stage, she would also be making no changes to trading hours.
She said SPROUT fills a very different niche to the Daybreak Café, but there are plenty of exciting initiatives happening.
“I was very sorry to hear that they had closed because I know they worked very hard down there, but we won’t be opening any earlier, especially at this time of year,” Karen said.
“If there is a demand for it, we would look at opening up a bit earlier when it warms up a bit, but there are things like staffing costs to consider.
“We’re actually putting in a suggestion box this week, for people to give us their ideas about different things we can do here.
“We’re going to be doing different things like all-day morning teas for $10, which we will hopefully be starting next week, and we’ll also have specials on workers’ lunches, pensioners’ specials on a Tuesday, and 10 per cent off fruit and veg on a Tuesday.”