The Coffee Bomb Dream
Kylie Sutton loves delicious food, cheerful chat, and great coffee, so when the chance came up to combine all three passions by buying the Coffee Bomb food trailer, she didn’t hesitate. Literally a small business — the whole trailer is only 4.5m long — the Coffee Bomb sits right in the heart of Garston. Travelling along the main tourist route of S.H.6 you just can’t miss it. In fact, its the perfect place to buy food-and-drinks-to-go.
Food Faves and Raves
The food in the Coffee Bomb cabinet has that homemade touch that’s hard to beat. Kylie cooks it daily right there in the Coffee Bomb’s tiny oven. Even the burgers have her famous home-style touch, with the gluten-free patties made onsite to delicious old-fashioned recipes. Add in slow-cooked lamb roasts and melt-in-your-mouth-tender pork belly — all cooked in the van — and you’re in burger heaven. You won’t find burgers like these anywhere else.
“I’d have to say ‘The Bomb’ is our most popular burger” says Kylie. “Tabitha (from next-door Craft Keepers) and I invented it when we were cold and hungry one slow, winter’s day.”
Featuring fresh burger buns, pork belly & bacon, coleslaw, and dripping with tasty sauce, The Bomb has been a menu staple ever since. “There’d probably be a customer riot if we took it off the menu now,”
My personal favourites are the muffins. Kylie’s muffins actually taste as good as they look which, in my experience, is a very rare thing. Other locals rave over the homemade carrot cake, lolly cake, and of course, the locally-roasted ROAR coffee.
Village With a Vibe
But why would a former butcher, busy farmer, and volunteer fire fighter/medic set up a food stop in this tiny tourist town?
“I love the vibe in Garston,” Kylie explains. “The locals are fabulous. So many people give us their whole-hearted support. The businesses complement each other too, and everyone is always willing to lend a hand. It’s great to have travellers who stop in on a regular basis, and of course the tourist trade is fantastic. We’re just in the right spot for a stop.”
But the Coffee Bomb vision doesn’t stop there. A boutique accommodation business “The Bomb Com” is planned for 2019. Watch this space, folks; with Kylie’s gift for customer service, it sounds like a winner to me.
Essential Links
What a lovely post. For many of us, our coffee is more than a daily routine or casual pleasure. Yes, we enjoy the delightful taste and caffeine boost. But we also have a lifetime of pleasant associations linked to our coffee breaks.
In addition to the coffee itself, we also treasure the coffee shops and people and foods that go along with it.
Thanks for prompting some great memories.
Randy Green
Chongqing, China
Thanks for this, Randy. I’m delighted to know that you’re still visiting my blog. Yes, I really enjoyed writing this post, and interviewing Kylie for it too. Garston is such a quiet-seeming rural village, but it holds a wealth of great little businesses, and this is the first in a series about my little home town. You are so right about the places being as important as the coffee, and I would say the people too. There are little cafes dotted around New Zealand that I would always go back to because of the ambiance, the menu and most of all the outstanding service I’ve had there.