Eat Guilt-Free in Rotorua This Easter

Eat Guilt-Free in Rotorua This Easter

Rotorua, 2nd April 2012 - A Rotorua café which gives all of its profits away to charity is sharing one of its favourite recipes to help celebrate the upcoming Easter holiday.

Third Place Café, overlooking Lake Rotorua, is a part of the Aroma Community Charitable Trust formed by a group of friends to raise money to support local projects. The café opened in 2008 and has so far donated thousands of dollars back into the community.

Manager Jane Noble, whose mother Kathryn helped establish the café, says its name comes from the book The Great Good Place by author Ray Oldenburg.

The Great Good Place says the ‘first place’ is your home and those you live with. The ‘second place’ is your work, school or place of study. The ‘third place’ is where you go to relax, connect and enjoy.

“Third places are where people can gather, put aside the concerns of work and home, hang out with good company and enjoy lively conversation. We wanted to become the ‘third place’ for the Rotorua community,” she explains.

Noble’s mother, along with a group of friends - some of whom met at a local church - were looking for ways to raise money and support the local community. Some of the trustees had experience in hospitality so opening a café seemed like a good choice.

A building with a fantastic view was found at 35 Lake Rd, near the city, and the group set about renovating the premises and turning their dream into reality.

“It took months of volunteer work to get the café up to speed,” Noble says. “Not many cafés in Rotorua have a view and over time we have built up a great reputation.”

The eatery has received rave online reviews and barista Sjoke Van de Esschert won a bronze medal in the open barista section at the New Zealand Culinary Fare in Auckland last year. Café Magazine also awarded Third Place Café runner-up in the Rotorua Best Café Awards for the last three years and this year they aim to receive top honours.

Destination Rotorua Marketing general manager, Oscar Nathan, says Third Place Café is a great example of a Rotorua business sharing its success with those in need.

“This fantastic initiative has provided much-needed support for hundreds of worthy causes, many of which benefit local children. Just by visiting the café, you are donating funds to the Rotorua community.” he says.

Last year, Third Place Café donated $1000 to Manaia-Grace Tuielu, a Rotorua toddler with a degenerative form of epilepsy, to assist her family with hospital costs. They also hosted ‘Luke’s Day’ for Luke van der Leeden, a young local boy who needed treatment for Ewing’s Sarcoma – a rare form of aggressive bone cancer.

Following the devastating Canterbury earthquakes, they also encouraged other Rotorua cafés to donate $2 from every coffee sold to the Salvation Army in Christchurch.

“We donate to local schools and sports groups plus we give out gift vouchers for the café. Our proximity to the hospital has established strong working relations with the Lakes District Health Board. We have donated funds to purchase Wii consoles and games for the children’s ward and have recently made contributions to the building of short stay units for visitors to Rotorua while visiting their ill family members,” Noble says.

“We have 30 staff in total and a significant number of volunteers, some who have volunteered their skills and time since we opened. We’re always keen to hear from people who would like to make a difference by working in the kitchen or helping with fundraising.”

Third Place Café’s head chef, Andy Mischewski, created a special ‘Magic Easter Slice’ recipe for people to try themselves, or pop into the café to enjoy at Easter weekend (see below recipe).

The café is open Monday to Saturday from 8am and has recently introduced a new menu alongside their cabinet food. “Aside from the ‘Magic Easter Slice’, our custard square is by far our most popular item – we make big slabs of it every morning and by 11am it’s all gone,” says Noble.

Third Place Café’s ‘Magic Easter Slice’

Ingredients
250 grams vanilla biscuit crumbs
250 grams malt biscuit crumbs
2 cups long thread coconut
375 grams melted butter
2 cups dark chocolate buttons
1 ½ cups raisins
1 ½ cups desiccated coconut
1 cup slivered almonds
1 packet mini caramel Easter eggs
2 tins condensed milk

Method
Place first four dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Press mixture evenly into a lined roasting dish. Sprinkle dark chocolate buttons, raisins, desiccated coconut, slivered almonds and mini caramel Easter eggs over base. Pour the condensed milk over the slice and bake at 150 degrees celsius until caramelised and golden. Happy Easter!

ENDS

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