A local chef and fitness fanatic is again filling a gap in a popular Sunshine Coast area by offering healthier eats options from his newly opened Hawaiian-inspired cafe.
Chris Woodley says the prime location he nabbed to run his second Aloha Poke Bowls cafe is the perfect spot, as well as being a former well-known takeaway shop in Alexandra Headland.
“The history of the shop space is interesting because for 20 years it was a fish and chip shop called Mandolin Seafoods,” Mr Woodley said.
“It’s iconic, everyone remembers this place as the old fish and chip shop. Even when I was a young teenager skating, I’d come here for chips.
“We are across the road from the skate park and surf club there – it is such a good spot.”
While completing the two-month fit-out, Mr Woodley said they went to take the salt-eroded signs down and behind them on the wall was a sign that said ‘chicken seafood’.
“I fully remember that sign, I was like ‘whoa flashback’,” he said.
“The building is about 45 years old so we did renovations and made sure everything was fixed and safe. Now it’s painted white in here – before everything was painted black, it was really dense.
“The process was easy with the council, everything was already here – the bones were already here, they were just broken bones.”
While it was a “stressful” time for the powerlifter to reach his goal of operating by the end of the holidays, he said officially opening on Saturday, January 14, was a huge relief.
“I’m stoked to be open and to be able to give healthy food to everyone, this is what I do this for,” he said.
“The community loves it, everyone says it’s exactly what Alex needs and there is literally nothing else around like this.
“My PT and powerlifting community were always complaining and saying how ridiculous it was that there are no healthy food options in the area.”
Offering acai bowls, smoothies and poke bowls with salmon, fresh tuna, poached chicken and tofu salads, Mr Woodley uses ingredients such as pineapple, edamame, bean shoots, coriander and mint.
He said all the locally sourced items on the menu were 100 per cent gluten free.
“If you can make gluten-free food taste good then you might as well do that,” he chuckled.
“Health is your wealth, to eat healthy and for it to taste delicious is a win-win.
“The most popular menu item is the Asian tuna. Poke is traditionally Hawaiian with fresh tuna and you can’t buy fresh tuna from the shops, only the fisheries, so it’s definetely a bit of a treat when you go out for lunch.”
The 34-year-old said he chose the location after eyeing off the Cotton Tree area and realising how busy it was and how hard it would be to “get in” there.
“I thought ‘if I could try and get in to somewhere near the beach with a good location, I think this has massive potential to explode’,” he said.
“When we saw the space, it was up for three days and we had 15 people go for it. The owner chose my food, so I was really happy about that.”
He said after “a bit of a tough time” during COVID and once the pandemic settled and people began travelling interstate, his Marcoola shop went “ballistic”.
“I built that shop from scratch myself and I worked six days a week to get it open. We built it up and now it’s growth is about 400 per cent over about two years,” he said.
The new eye-catching Aloha Poke Bowl at Alexandra Headland was painted by Maroochydore-based muralist Eleanor Darling after Mr Woodley spotted her work on a local Facebook community board.
“Her work is absolutely incredible, she does realism and got her friend to come and help out,” he said.
“She is going to come and do another mural on the entrance wall – there is a 3D turtle that pops out so we will get the turtle painted and do an underwater theme, just to make it more fun and bright.”
Local journalists supporting local people. Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast news coming by subscribing to our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. SUBSCRIBE here now.
