Sneak peek at new cafe

Main photo: Judit Losh

The owners of new café opening at Burpengary next week want it to be a destination for foodies looking for fresh, tasty and healthy cuisine in a serene setting.

As the name suggests, Café Salubrious, will have a focus on food which is free of grains, dairy and refined sugars in a bid to nuture the palate and body.

It will open at 143 Rowley Rd, Burpengary, on July 25 led by chef and food educator Kurt Lovell.

The café is the vision of Kurt and wife Anita Wilson who embraced a Paleo lifestyle many years ago in a bid to better manage their health and provide healthy food for their children now aged six and eight years.

Kurt is passionate about using local produce and will be using salads from Blue Dog Farm (Ocean View), herbs from Basilea (Burpengary), meat from Beachmere Butchery, and fruit and vegetables from a small company at Wamuran.

“As we grow, I want these guys to grow with us,” he says.

Kurt believes using fresh, local produce is also better for his customers and is a strong point of difference.

|“I want people to talk about it … ‘wow this salad’s amazing, where did you get it from’,” he explains.|

“That’s what I want with my customers. I want that interaction.”

It’s reflected in the design, with an open kitchen enabling diners to watch meals being prepared.

In a bid to help his busy customers, Kurt’s range of ready-to-heat meals will be available to order and pick-up from the cafe. His popular cooking classes will also resume soon.

Big picture thinking

The cafe is the first element of a larger development taking shape on the 5000 sqm block, with Absorbent Minds, a Montessori early education centre founded by Lovell’s wife, Anita, and her sisters Natalie and Deborah, also almost ready to open next door.

The teaching method and school at Caboolture brought the couple to the Moreton Bay Region and when their daughter’s Montessori childcare centre closed, they decided to build their own.

Their two-year search for land ended in 2019 and they have worked closely with architect Rachel Towill to create a café and childcare centre that delivers their vision.

What’s on the menu?

The menu Kurt has created is inspired by what produce is available locally, favourite dishes he has created before and tasty combinations of flavours.

“My goal is as long as it’s clean, fresh, vibrant food without grains, dairy and refined sugars,” he says.

There is already a buzz among his customers on Facebook and the REKO Ring community, of which he is a part.

He’s hoping diners will travel from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast to eat there and the café will be well-supported by Moreton Bay Region residents too.

|“We want to be a destination. We want people to look at what we’re doing here and take the drive to come here because it’s going to be worth it,” he says.|

Café Salubrious will open on Monday, July 25.

It will be open from 7am-2.30pm, Monday to Friday initially with plans to serve customers on weekends soon.

For more details and to apply for work, head to the Facebook page.