A renovation full of heart and history has been unveiled at treasured Coledale food house, Earth Walker & CO, as operators set their sights on a move into destination dining. Subscribe now for unlimited access . Login or signup to continue reading The cafe has transformed into a restaurant but retains a menu written around nourishing, sustainably-sourced, inventive and rustic fare.
Those are the ethos of owner/cook Ciara Kulmar, a former nurse and midwife with a generations-long hospitality background. The new look is by Eliza Woodward, a luxury travel agency operator who pivoted into design work during COVID lockdowns. The pair met when Ciara catered a wedding at Eliza's Austinmer home, which doubles as an AirBNB, The Black Chapel.
They hatched plans to bring Eliza's fantastical yesteryear parlour aesthetic into Earth Walker , but it all gathered dust during the pandemic. The makeover is the result of six recent hell-for-leather weeks, spent pulling every resource and spare set of hands the duo, and venue manager Talina Wilson, could muster. At times it became a community project, with Ciara's children Kye, 16, Kailan, 12 and Zayd 10, among a crew of local kids who helped paint the chequerboard floor and hammer some character marks into the old brick walls.
"It was a very deliberately low-budget project, because restaurants are going bust everywhere," Eliza said. "A lot of things we found on Facebook Marketplace from other places shutting down. "We found these beautiful old .