The old Peter’s Meats shop on Katoomba Street is unrecognisable now.
The serving area has cafe chairs and tables, the old cool room is a casual lounge area and the business end – where the butchers used to do their chopping – is now the kitchen of Katoomba’s first vegan cafe.
The irony that a meat shop is now a plant-based store is not lost on owners Robyn Bennett Healy and John Healy.
The fact that it had been home to Peter’s Meats for years actually worked to their advantage when the building was for sale, said Mr Healy.
“It was such an intact butcher shop that no-one would touch it,” he said. “They thought it was too much work ...and it was too much work,” he said, looking around at the major renovations they had to undertake.
"But it was really cheap, no-one wanted it and we just stripped it.”
The pair, with pals Deborah Shaw and Des Devlin, bought the building. With the help of friends, they have fashioned it into an attractive cafe.
Mrs Bennett Healy said she was intent on “getting a nice feel. I wanted a place that was comfortable.”
Virtually everything in the cafe is second-hand, recycled or found. She particularly wanted to thank the generosity of the Cancer Help op shop and the Salvos.
Mrs Bennett Healy has a long connection to the Mountains – her grandfather, William Brown, was head chef at Jenolan Caves and her grandmother managed the motel at Mt Victoria. Mr Healy is Dublin born and worked in cafes in Ireland. He learnt to cook while living in an ashram in Newtown when he was 17.
She is a vegan, he a self-described “bad vegetarian” ("I eat fish"). The couple wanted to ensure their menu didn’t contain anything that was a burden on animals, hence the name, Plantbased Wholefoods.
Offerings include tofu or tempeh burgers with chips, falafal mixed plate, quinoa tempeh salad and fattoush with chick peas and mint dressing. And herbal teas or coffee with one of Mr Healy’s home-made milks, such as hemp, almond, cashew or soy.
"Vegans are ecstatic," Mrs Bennett Healy said.
Non-meat eaters now have a choice in Katoomba with the Embassy, at the top of Katoomba Street, recently opened as a vegetarian cafe.
Plantbased Wholefoods will be open from 10am Wednesday to Saturday.
There will also be live music at the cafe, with the first performance by renowned Irish fiddle and banjo player John Carty with his daughter, Maggie (banjo and vocals) on Thursday, March 14 at 7pm. Tickets at the cafe ($20) or on the night ($25).
The cafe is at 95 Katoomba Street, next to Leading Edge Computers.