A stylish new beachside café in a unique location has been attracting foodies and families, beachgoers, coffee lovers, retirees and ladies who lunch, with or without their offspring happily monkeying around in the nearby playground.

Beachstone Café opened its doors in December 2007 in a newly created Beachfront Park surrounded by native forest and the ocean at North Sapphire Beach. It will form part of an extensive eco-friendly residential development to be established in the beachfront location over the next ten years.

Samantha Jennings, who runs the café, has put her heart and soul into the venue’s interior design, setting the right atmosphere to make anyone and everyone feel comfortable, and creating a healthy and tantalizing breakfast and lunch menu.

Sam is obviously passionate about getting things just right and providing healthy meals. The blackboards on the wall that substitute printed menus are an indication of the often changing options resulting from fresh supplies of seasonal produce and newly sourced ingredients, many of which come from local suppliers.

Beachstone is proud to declare there’s nothing on the menu that’s been deepfried or microwaved. You go to this café for its honest, healthy, organic and nutritious food, not for fish and chips.

At the time of writing, popular breakfast options included baked polenta tart with poached egg, mushroom and grilled asparagus; and meredith dairy sheeps milk yoghurt with muesli and simarloo figs, peaches and black pepitas.

Four kiddie brekkies and four lunch options for the little ones were on offer when this writer visited, reasonably priced from $7.50 for breakfast.

Examples of what might be on the lunch menu would be ricotta and blue cheese hand-rolled cannelloni with toasted hazelnut and baby spinach salad; prawn & scallop risotto with lime, chilli and capers; and various salads and sandwiches, with prices ranging from $11.50 to about $25.

Beachstone’s beverage list is extensive and appealing, with hot and cold drinks including chais, tonics, teas and coffees, fruit juices, milkshakes and smoothies – and no syrups or artificial flavourings are used in any of these. BYO wine or beer.

The café is a great place to hang out in any kind of weather, thanks to the large covered verandas surrounding it. From the northern and western sides, parents can keep an eye on the large playground in the park where their little ones can amuse themselves while mummy and daddy linger over their meal or coffee.

The Beachfront Park also has large grassed areas, benches, covered sitting platforms, barbecues, public toilets and showers, and direct beach access.

To get to Beachstone Café, turn into Split Solitary Road from the Pacific Highway, 8km north of Coffs Harbour, and follow the signs through the new housing development site to the Beachfront Park at the end of the road.

The café is open Thursday to Sunday from 8am to 4pm. Breakfast is served until 11am and lunch is available from 12noon to 3pm. Freshly baked cakes, muffins, slices and biscuits and a wide variety of hot and cold drinks are available throughout the day.

Weekends tend to be busy so bookings are strongly advised for Saturdays and Sundays. Call Beachstone Café on 6653 6188 to book or for more information.

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