Rendezvous This year, the hospitality industry has suffered tremendously. We want to support our local restaurants, cafes and coffee bars and let them know how much we love seeing their cheery smiles. Each issue, we will feature one of our readers’ local café, restaurant or coffee bar. We invite you to tell us five things you like about your favourite place. You can let us know on our website, send us an email, or visit our Facebook group. We will select the best reader’s choice. The best letter will get a lunch for you and a friend on us.
St Shoebill’s is a really interesting name. Sam loves animals and wildlife in general. Sam told us, they had known about the Shoebill for a while and chose this bird to represent the business as it is a strong, tall and powerful bird that seems to know the direction it is going in. To Sam the shoebill makes a statement. They want the café to be strong and powerful, to succeed and grow. Sam describes himself and his wife as highly driven and competitive. Their focus for the restaurant is on quality. The dream is not there yet, but they are going to work hard to get there.
This issue we feature one of our favourite restaurants and our next door neighbour, St Shoebill’s in Ipswich. St Shoebill’s is a new restaurant in town and is already attracting the local crowd with their charm and distinctive menu.
St Shoebill’s Located in Ipswich’s Top of the Town dining precinct and housed in one of the city’s heritage buildings, St Shoebill’s is a welcome surprise. The front entrance is inviting, and the interior is friendly and open with an industrial edge. St Shoebill’s owners, Sam Ladson and his wife Kim, are not new to the hospitality industry, having owned another café at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast. Sam has had a few business iterations; he is a builder by trade and particularly like the double brick interior and said it was the building that allowed him to picture and imagine the possibilities. He loves to travel and gain inspiration from the architecture in Europe and Asia. He sees architecture and design as a creative source of inspiration from which he can develop ideas to implement here.
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