She and her mother, Judith Gledhill, opened the Mackay Street meeting place on April 1 two years ago and the cafe’s second anniversary will this year extend to a week of celebrations.
A series of special offerings at the cafe will culminate with the Thursday night (April 6) Rochester Business Network market, which will see Mackay Street closed to traffic from the GIllies Street roundabout to the senior citizens laneway.
The cafe will be offering something for the adults and children on market night, with pulled pork rolls and hot dogs allowing for a protein fix before the traditionally seafood intake on Good Friday.
"We had the same thing at the last Christmas market and it was very popular,“ Lisa said.
The business has become an unofficial meeting place for many Rochester residents since the October floods as many people aren’t living in their own homes and cannot host visitors in temporary accommodation.
The closure of the popular Kits Cafe has also seen many people seeking out a new location for coffee, cake and conversation.
Lisa said she had noticed an increase in the amount of foot traffic in the town and was hoping for a similarly hectic response to the market offerings as there was 18 months ago.
Cafe Rochester will be offering a special “cake of the day’’ all week, with scones kicking things off yesterday and Judith’s speciality, Ferrero Rocher cheesecake, the offering on Tuesday.
Wednesday’s offering is pavlova, and “small cakes’’ will be the choice for Thursday, featuring Easter eggs.
"We are planning to share the birthday celebrations with the customers,“ Lisa said.
Lisa said the passion of people for enjoying each other’s company in a cafe scenario had increased since the COVID lockdowns and the devastating floods.
“They have both brought people closer together and we have been able to use our extra space to host a lot of meetings,” Lisa said.
“We have become a central meeting point, to the point where we had an art workshop out the back with Donna Gordge.
“We’ve embraced that role and it has flowed on to building our customer base.”
Lisa said she was hoping to be able to organise more things like the art workshop going forward.
“People are travelling back from out of town to meet here and catch up with friends,” she said.
“It is hard to host a friend in a caravan.”
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