Karen Sewell has set up Honest Kitchen selling breakfast, lunch and take-home meals.
Video Stuart Munro
A Ridgway St property, built in 1901 by a local saddler, has had yet another reincarnation.
Honest Kitchen is the latest business to set up in the building which has previously been home to an oyster cafe, a solicitor's office, a menswear and haberdashery shop, a Dutch cafe and tearooms,a fish and chip shop, the Hong Kong Chinese restaurant and takeaway and most recently The Flying Monkey bookshop.
Karen Sewell opened Honest Kitchen, providing food to go, on September 12. There are a few seats in the front of the premises but the concept is healthy takeaway food and pre-prepared meals to heat up at home.
"This is my passion, I love it," Sewell said.
"I thought there was a need in Whanganui for fresh food to take away. When my mum got sick and my dad didn't know how to cook at that stage, it would have been good to have something like this.
"People come in to get food for friends who are going through chemo. There are good options for Friday night takeaways or for people working night shifts. People come in to get breakfast, lunch and dinner."
The name Honest Kitchen comes from Sewell's focus on good, flavoursome, "honest" food.
"It's all real ingredients. We make everything, including the stock, from scratch. The bread is from [Whanganui company] Sourbros.
"It's health conscious but we do have some of the more traditional hot meals like macaroni cheese. There are lots of gluten free and vegan options and we're trying to do some keto options."
There is cabinet food, including breakfast items, a range of salads, hot food and sweets, as well as fresh and frozen meals to take home to heat up. All the takeaway containers are compostable or recyclable. People can bring their own containers and coffee cups if they want.
"I didn't intend to have coffee but then decided it would be a good complement to the food so we have fair trade organic coffee from Underground Coffee in Christchurch. The cold drinks are a bit different from the usual options."
Karen Sewell and her team are cooking up a range of cabinet food and pre-packaged meals.
There is some star power in the kitchen with well-known Whanganui chef Joe Power on the team.
"I started my career with Joe 25 years ago and worked with him again at Essence about three years ago," Sewell said.
"We get on really well and it's great to have him here. He's going to finish his career with me which is really nice."
Sewell employs two other staff and in November will have the assistance of another chef who is moving from Melbourne.
Sewell has an answer for those who question whether Whanganui needs another cafe.
"I don't feel we are competing with other cafes. If you want to sit down and chat with your friends over lunch, then you'd go to one of the other cafes.
"Places like Burger Cartel and us are bringing new food concepts to Whanganui. We're bringing the bigger city concepts to smaller towns."
