HORSHAM cafe Chickpea will fire up its coffee machine from Wednesday as it reopens its doors after being closed for three months.
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Owner and manager Lyn Witney-Drum said it would be business as usual when the Pysent Street institution started trading again but have been some changes to the menu and opening hours.
"Our menu is going to be pretty much just all our favourites with a couple of other things put in," she said. "To me it's only fairly basic stuff but I'm also setting up a basic menu so that I can sell it (Chickpea) pretty easily."
Ms Witney-Drum said the cafe would be open from 8am until 3pm on Wednesday through until Saturday.
"We're also only going to be open four days a week so it will be more manageable for me," she said. "I got too exhausted last time so I don't want to get to the same point."
She said she had also updated the alfresco area, adding some bigger tables and more plants.
Ms Witney-Drum said she had lost most of her old team, except a few junior staff, with all her former baristas having moved to Nourish'd Eatery while Chickpea was closed.
"I hope people will give us a bit of leeway because all of the new team have to get on board," she said. "Whereas all the other girls just knew it off by heart."
She said she is looking for more staff and for interested people to contact her at the cafe.
Ms Witney-Drum said her sea change dream of moving to Torquay to open a new cafe has been put on hold while she handles the reality of keeping the cafe she opened 25 years ago in good condition for sale.
"I never ever thought I'd be back here," she said. "But I just believe in it and thought I'll just get it back up and running because it's too good to just leave sitting here because it's just devaluing every minute."
She said she had plenty of interested buyers but with nobody following through on the sale she would need to start promoting the cafe to people wanting a tree change from Melbourne.
"It's not me taking this on forever, I still really want to go down there (to Torquay)," she said. "But I just couldn't bring myself to do pull it (Chickpea) apart."
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Eliza Berlage
Eliza Berlage made the move to Horsham to report for the Wimmera Mail-Times in October 2019. Originally from Sydney, she has a sociology background and spent two years working in the press gallery in Canberra.
Eliza Berlage made the move to Horsham to report for the Wimmera Mail-Times in October 2019. Originally from Sydney, she has a sociology background and spent two years working in the press gallery in Canberra.
