New café opens at Remarkables Park Shopping Centre

A new café has opened up at Queenstown’s growing retail hub Remarkables Park Shopping Centre, catering for some of the thousands of locals and visitors the centre attracts each year. 
 
Southland-born couple Kym Howley and Carol Edwards had long dreamed of running a hospitality business in the tourism capital of New Zealand and had been “on the look-out” for suitable premises for some time.
 
When they saw the corner site in the heart of Remarkables Park’s shopping centre they jumped at the opportunity to open up a business with broad appeal to all.
 
Their newly fitted-out café Evoque officially opened for business late last week and feedback has already been “very positive”, the couple say.
 
Describing the interior fitout of the café as classic, edgy, with plenty of wood and copper, new lighting and seating, the couple plan to continue to offer crowd-pleasing favourites that had been on the menu of the previous café operator, while introducing a new range of options.
 
“We’re still serving tasty, wholesome food such as toasties, cheese rolls and hearty breakfasts, but we also now have a wide range of healthier options that aren’t currently being offered elsewhere in Remarkables Park,” said Carol.
 
“We’re extremely proud of the fact that everything in the cabinet or what comes out of the kitchen is made here on the premises, fresh every day.
 
“We’re also very privileged to be selling Supreme Coffee. This Wellington-based coffee only supplies to a select few cafés, and some very discerning people come here purely for the coffee we serve.”
 
Teas are supplied from Auckland-based Tea Total Teas, ideal for those who like to pop in for a pot of tea and a home-made scone.
 
New breakfast menu items already proving a ‘hit’ with customers include a breakfast burrito, smoothie bowl, power porridge and avocado smash, to mention a few. 
 
Kym and Carol describe themselves as “very hands on” with their new business.
 
“We’re always here, serving food or coffees, clearing tables, chatting to people and getting a good feel for what people want from a café here in this busy shopping centre,” said Kym.
 
Running Evoque is quite a change of pace and lifestyle for the couple. Originally from Invercargill, Carol has a background in hospitality and as a sales rep before they moved to Perth for 15 months and worked in the mining industry while running a café there. Kym spent 21 years in the car industry in Invercargill followed by a decade running his own real estate business.
 
Manned by a six-strong team, the new café is currently open 8am to 5pm daily, although plans are in hand for a second stage of development of the premises in time for summer.