A long-time local has opened her first cafe on the Coast, taking over a site that was made famous by its appearance on a reality TV show.
Donna Cook, who has lived on the Coast on and off for the past 30 years, has opened Maggie Mays’ Kitchen and Bar at Rosemount.
The site was formerly Guru Life, which closed mid-last year. It became famous after it was featured in an episode of Kitchen Nightmares with celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge in 2022.
In a post to social media in July, the owners of Guru Life confirmed the venue was for sale.
“Thanks to you all for the journey so far and lets get excited and see what comes next!!!” they posted in August.
Mrs Cook, from Glenview, said she had semi-retired when her husband Brett, a builder, noticed the vacant space.
“My husband happened to be working across the road and he goes, ‘Oh, that cafe that we got our coffees from, that’s closed’, and I said, ‘I’ve always wanted to look in there’, because you could never actually see in,” she said.
“I had sort of semi-retired and was a bit bored, and so my girlfriend and I, we came and had a look and I went, ‘This is so nice, this is such a nice space’.
“I went home and I said to my husband, ‘I think you should come and have a look with me’, and he goes, ‘No, we don’t need to go back into hospitality, I’m not coming to work there’.
“I said, ‘Just come and have a look’, so he came and had a look and he went, ‘Oh, wow, this isn’t what I expected’. So it just sort of progressed from there.
“We took over in the middle of December and we’ve just had our heads down and our backsides up, because it had been vacant for a little while – just getting it back up to scratch and getting it nice and tidy again.”
Mrs Cook said the reaction to the cafe since opening on Thursday, January 11, had been very positive.
“It’s been fabulous. It’s been really good. People are still getting to know we’re here but we’re getting quite a few early people in as well,” she said.
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“We’re just trying to sort our menu out make sure it sort of works properly.
“We only had a couple of teething issues, which wasn’t too bad.”
Despite being her first Coast cafe, Mrs Cook – who ran a hotel together with her husband in Far North Queensland – has had some help to set up the business.
“My daughter-in-law’s in hospitality, my son-in-law’s in hospitality, my daughter was but she’s now in building design,” she said.
“My son-in-law had Something for Catering and Gainsbourg down at Mooloolaba, so I picked his brains as much as I could and had a few contacts, which helped.”
The cafe has an all-day breakfast-style menu and is currently open 6am-2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 7am-2pm on Saturday and Sunday.
“We just want to get this right and then we’re going to look at opening Thursday and Friday nights,” Mrs Cook said.
“We’ll possibly have a specials menu for a Thursday and Friday night. It’ll be more about sitting and sharing and having a chat, having a drink, just to relax.”
She said the business had a focus on using supporting local businesses.
“We’re using Kai Coffee, Your Mates, Cotton Tree Meats, Erbachers for our fruit and veggies, Ten Acres Bakery, so everyone local as much as we possibly can,” she said.
Mrs Cook is hoping to attract more staff, both kitchen and front-of-house, especially juniors, to help get the business up and running.
For more details visit Maggie Mays’ Kitchen and Bar.
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