The town of Conception Bay South can expect a little more colour and flavour in the next coming weeks, with the opening of a new café in the area of Manuels River.
Michael and Cinthia Wozney, better known as the husband and wife duo behind the Mexican restaurant Soul Azteka and food truck Poko Loko, were awarded a contract to operate a café at the Manuels River Hibernia Interpretation Centre after the centre sent out a request for proposals.
The new cafe will be called Frida's Riverside Café, a homage to Cinthia’s love of Frida Kahlo.
“The painting, the history she has, the colours — she used a lot of Mexican dress,” Cinthia said, before lifting up her left-hand sleeve, exposing a tattoo of the outline of Kahlo’s face, replete with her famous unibrow.
About 14 months ago Soul Azteka closed so they could concentrate more on catering and their food truck.
“We’ve kind of had this public outcry of when are you going to have a spot again, when are you going to open again, when can I get you on a regular basis,” Michael said.
“So we were in the midst of considering looking for a new space where we could put our catering and everything together and (the centre) were looking for a partner that was willing to do a lot of the same.”
Executive director of the Manuels River Hibernia Interpretation Centre, Janet Rumsey, says when the café was up for renewal, the centre decided to approach the café space with a different mindset.
"We're a registered charity so we were looking for ways that we could partner with someone who is community-minded and build our sources of revenue to be more sustainable," Rumsey said.
Prior to this, Coffee Matters took up residency in the space, operating as exclusive daytime caterers. For special events, outside caterers would come in.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to (partner) with somebody who will be here permanently on-site, focused on being here,” she said.
Michael says the opportunity to work with a charitable organization is great for him and his wife.
“I understand the value of not-for-profits and what they need to keep their doors open,” Wozney said.
“The way we’ve set it up, it’s like a perfect marriage. We’ll provide all the food and run the café day to day. We’ll also provide all the catering, but their staff will be the servers for the catering.”
This will hopefully allow for the non-profit to save money on outside caterers and servers, as well as providing more workable hours for their current staff.
On the menu, customers can expect some new additions to the Wozney’s fare.
“I’m a French-trained chef so there’s nothing I don’t do,” Michael said.
“As much as we’re still going to have (Mexican) available, it gives me the opportunity to do all those foods I’ve been doing all my career.”
This includes traditional Newfoundland food like fishcakes — a dish Michael was recently crowned champion of at the Bay Robert’s seafood festival in May — as well as southern barbecue.
And the new space itself already has the Wozney’s thinking of ideas for special events.
“A venue like this lets us open up the doors to so much more than our little 30-seat dining place ever did.”
Just to see their customers again, makes them excited, Cinthia says.
“We don’t care that it’s a little far, we have somewhere that we can serve our customers again,” she says.
As for the distance, Michael says that’s no issue.
“It’s ten minutes from Costco — five songs on your radio.”
They’re currently in the process of moving in, but they expect to do a soft-opening in late January, with a grand opening in the first week of February.
Twitter: @andrewLwaterman
