Grace Hessell (left), Joel Arnold and their dog Elton outside what will eventually become Little Curious cafe. Photo / Supplied
Grace Hessell (left), Joel Arnold and their dog Elton outside what will eventually become Little Curious cafe. Photo / Supplied
Grace Hessell and Joel Arnold are always up for an adventure, and they are in the midst of their biggest one yet.
The couple have bought the Old Curiosity Shop on the corner of Glasgow and Harrison streets in Whanganui and are slowly turning into a cafe - Little Curious.
Their speciality? Bagels.
They have been sharing every step of the journey on social media, and the venture has already built a following without a single coffee being brewed.
Hessell, a Whanganui local, said she grew up walking past the shop because she lived just down the street.
"We talked to Peter [Littlewood] who owned it and he said he was keen to sell, so we bought it.
"It was all very spontaneously, really."
Their building plans were signed off by Whanganui District Council in mid-December.
Because they are working on a shoestring budget, the couple are doing as much of the work as they can themselves, usually at the weekends or in the evenings after they have finished their full-time jobs.
Friends of Hessell and Arnold enjoy one last sunny sit-down before the interior work begins. Photo / Supplied
Luckily, their friends are also pitching in, and Arnold is trained in both the culinary and construction sectors.
"I was a chef for 10 years. We moved to London and I tried for a job there and I just didn't like it," he said.
"The hours were bad, the pay was average, and I wanted my weekends to travel. My mate said I should go labouring and I went from there. I've been in construction for the past six years."
Hessell said they wanted to "pick one item and do it right".
"We are both really keen on bagels, and Whanganui doesn't really have them.
"You can get pretty creative with them. The options are endless."
Fresh coffee and baked goods will also be on the menu.
"I love baking, so muffins, scones, cakes and little sweet treats will be there as a daily as well," Arnold said.
The option of bulldozing the building and starting afresh hasn't crossed their minds.
"Across the road, it was originally the same sort of storefront as this. There was a butcher and stuff like that," Arnold said.
"They bowled all of that and built townhouses. It's quite cool to have this still here, in its original spot."
Hessell said they had written a letter to Littlewood spelling out their intentions to keep the building intact.
"We said we were worried that if he did put it on the market it would have been bowled right away, which I'm sure it would have been.
"People would have looked at the state of parts of it and said 'knock it down'. Lots of people told us to knock it down as well, and we said 'nope'.
"The front doors are my favourite part. They won't be touched.
"We want to bring it back to what it was."
As much of the original material is being kept, although because the structure is well over 100 years old, a lot of work needs to be done to bring it up to scratch.
A meeting with Whanganui District Council heritage adviser Scott Flutey revealed that the oldest part of the building was constructed in 1895.
The couple are doing the vast majority of the work themselves. Photo / Supplied
"Originally, it was a little villa. The shopfront wasn't added on until the early 1920s," Hessell said.
"It was called 'The Grocer and Fruiterer'. We've actually got an old sign from that time, which we unlayered when we were pulling off the veranda."
It has recently been re-roofed, an open kitchen will be installed, and the many bookshelves that once filled the space have been put in storage until the renovation is completed.
Genre cards (fiction, science fiction etc) have been kept to serve as table markers.
"We've found quite a bit of interesting stuff as we've gone along," Hessell said.
"There are some old newspapers and building plans, and even unused straw hat dye from the late 1800s, complete with instructions. You could probably still use it.
"That was stuck between two bits of wood, inside the old wall."
The cafe would open at some point next year, but before that, they wanted to make sure everything "was done right", Arnold said.
"I've run kitchens before, but I've never built one from scratch, then run it.
"That was what we were really into about the whole thing, that we can create what we want to create.
"The whole point is to design something that we really love and for people to come in, hang out, and enjoy it."
While the cafe will begin with just bagels, baked goods and coffee, the couple have plans to add more bits and pieces if things go well, such as concerts and community events.
"We've got consent to open for one evening a week," Hessell said.
"One idea is to have a supper club, with ingredients bought from the [Whanganui River] market. You would get people's dietary requirements and make something. They don't know what they're going to get, they just come and eat.
"Maybe something like a show plus a meal. Let's see what goes off."
