Hospitality veteran Kat Honor launched Nourish Cafe and Grocer on Valla Beach on the mid-north coast, starting the venture while her two daughters were young. After 18 years, with her daughters now living in Newcastle, she sold up and is now running a new venue with them in the coastal city.
LOLAs can be found on trendy Darby Street in an historic building that dates back to 1854. The two-storey venue features an open-plan daytime café downstairs, with a cosy cocktail bar upstairs – capturing both the day and night markets. With a chef who’s passionate about native ingredients, LOLAs’ menu celebrates all things Australian, championing ingredients such as wattle seed and saltbush. For breakfast, one of the café’s most popular dishes is the duck egg scramble, topped with house-made chilli oil and served with a duck sausage.
“Another fan favourite is our version of prawn toast, which people are absolutely loving,” says Kat.
“We’re also proud to serve all Australian wines and local beers, focusing on what we can source close to home and showcasing these incredible, local ingredients.”
Interestingly, Australian native ingredients also feature in the café’s cocktails, with one incorporating roasted kangaroo bone and fat.
“It’s an agave wash infused with the fat to bring out an earthy, authentic connection to the land. It’s one of those really distinctive flavours that showcases our commitment to using native Australian ingredients,” says Kat.
Nestled in a vibrant coffee strip, LOLAs stands out from the crowd by serving Merlo Coffee’s organic blend. Featuring beans from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, and Brazil, the coffee delivers flavours of almond, milk chocolate, and brown sugar.
“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with Merlo since our time at Nourish, and they’ve always been great at looking after us,” says Kat. “They jumped on board with us here as well.”
LOLAs
171 Darby Street, Cooks Hill, New South Wales, 2300
Open Wednesday to Saturday 7am to 10pm, and Sunday to Tuesday 7am to 3pm
