Toast Pambula follows 'in footsteps of Sprout', with sister cafe in Eden

Co-owner of Toast Cafe, Nicky Austin, said she was looking forward to extending the experience Toast had established in Pambula, and said she saw a lot of alignment between her brand and what previous business Sprout had built.

"A lot of our customers are from Eden, they travel up to visit us in Pambula or people might work in Eden, live in Pambula, vice-versa, and we really saw that there was an opportunity to be there for people," she said.

"We're following in the footsteps of Sprout which established a really amazing connection with local growers and we have that connection ourselves, but we express it through our menu.

"We see it as a really nice transition between the old guard and the new guard, but still supporting the community in that way."

Since building the initial cafe in Pambula four-and-a-half years ago, Nicky said plans for the future began to sprout, even though the business had also begun to take on catering opportunities alongside the store.

Nicky and her partner Ollie started to look at communities like Eden that didn't necessarily have a specialty coffee presence, and also felt a second cafe would help sustain the workforce by offering multi-venue work.

With a beautiful storefront, botanical mural by Ocean and Simon Thomas, and where blue chairs lingered around tables with booth seating inside, Toast Cafe Eden had made itself known.

Next to the counter, freshly made pastries and toasties tempt visitors and specialty coffee drinkers to take a seat and enjoy a meal as they cruise through Eden.

There were plans to introduce a 'Mug Library' similar to a street library, where patrons can select a mug from an assortment rather than single-use disposables.

"That's a plan for us, and of course, me being who I am, I wanted to achieve everything on day one, but naturally it's not going to happen on day one," she said with a laugh.

"You'll see already see another layer of Toast. We like to celebrate creativity, we like to celebrate community, and create different touch points for people to connect, people to exchange ideas."

In March 2023, when speaking to ACM about the Mug Library, unaware of the future, Nicky bounced the idea of others across the coast, something that can now blossom.

"Maybe if another cafe had a mug library outside theirs, you can pick one up there and return it somewhere else. That's how book libraries function," she had shared, "Maybe a sister cafe in Merimbula, Eden, and Bermagui."

Toast Eden is at 134 Imlay St, open 8am to 2.30pm, Monday to Saturday.