PEOPLE who drive down Grose Vale Road on their way to work would have noticed the addition of a small, blue shed adorned with fairy lights and a neon sign flashing the word ‘Coffee’.
And no, it’s not just someone’s funky-looking garden shed (as this journalist erroneously assumed).
The 2.7x1.8-metre booth does indeed sell coffee, and at $3 for a smooth, full-tasting short black made with local coffee beans, it’s a welcome bargain to boot.
The Little Coffee Shed is the initiative of Elizabeth Grady, a Hawkesbury mum who, after selling her busy Emu Plains cafe last year, wanted something she could focus on closer to home.
And closer to home it certainly is, plonked smack-bang in the front yard of her Grose Vale home.
“I’m not expecting millions of dollars, I’m just happy working in my front yard providing a community service that people love,” Mrs Grady told the Gazette.
It’s the perfect idea, really, at the perfect location. It’s as though Mrs Grady’s front yard was destined to host a coffee business, with plenty of space for cars to pull over and a turning circle right there.
And it’s not as though commuters coming down the mountain have anywhere else to stop and buy a takeaway coffee before they hit the shops and servos at North Richmond.
“We’ve already got regular customers - people who want coffee on the way to work from Grose Vale, Grose Wold, Bowen Mountain and the back parts of Kurrajong, and a couple of kids who come on push-bikes and get milkshakes,” said Mrs Grady.
Opening just before Christmas, the business is in its infancy, but Mrs Grady has all sorts of plans for it including opening longer hours and installing more appliances so she can offer a wider selection of snacks.
At the moment, she can make all the usual coffee orders - with syrup if you want - plus chai, tea, milkshakes, iced coffees and chocolates, and she has two small slushie machines for which she needs to get a freezer so she can make ice.
Banana bread, toast, raisin toast, muffins and toasties are also on offer, as are some gluten-free options and lactose-free milk.
Mrs Grady opens around 5am until 11am on weekdays, capturing the early morning takeaway trade, but she also has a few tables and chairs under umbrellas in case tourists want to drop in and enjoy the leafy scenery with their morning tea.
She bought the shed off eBay; it used to be a child’s cubby house. It’s since been painted, lined, insulated, plumbed in, and a sink, cupboards and work benches have been installed.
Mrs Grady estimates the cost of setting up the business was as little as $5,000.
The community has embraced the little blue shed, and Mrs Grady is doing what she can to support them in return, by providing space for some of her neighbours to sell their honey, eggs and pumpkins.
“I’ve met so many interesting people. I didn’t know most of my neighbours but since we had the shop I’ve met hundreds of them. They’re so interesting, happy and chatty, down to earth people,” she said.
“People will drop in and say ‘I’m your neighbour from over the back paddock’.
“There have been lots of inquisitive people who have wanted to stop and have a look. When it was raining last week I was offering window service, but some people said ‘no I want to come in and have a look!’”
The Little Coffee Shed is at 412 Grose Vale Road, Grose Vale. Payment can be made by cash or card.
