SAY G'DAY TO OUR SILVERDALE COFFEE SHOP OWNER
Kimberley embarked on her coffee shop business journey in 2020, and offers in house coffee roasting, grazers, catering and more to Silverdale and the surrounding area. Horse & Harpy is a vintage boutique horse float, lovingly restored and parked alongside a heritage listed Church with incredible views.
Read on to find out more about why Kimberley changed career path and created her dream coffee shop in the Dilly.
Let’s start off with a little bit about you
I am a long term Wollondilly resident, my family moved from the Blue Mountains in 1992 to a property on Bents Basin Road. They converted an old dairy into what would be our family home. In 2011 I moved to Silverdale after buying a block of land and building my own home. I have 3 boys aged 15, 10 and 9 that have all attended the local schools and now one of them works at a local business in Warragamba. In 2018 my marriage ended, and in 2019 a little white church just outside Silverdale came up for sale, so I bought it! Around the time that I bought the church, I reconnected with an old friend Jacob, my current partner and business partner. We combined our assets and came up with a plan to tackle the extension of the heritage listed church, which we planned to convert into home. I have always been interested in the history and stories behind people, places and things.
What did you want to be when you were young?
Having a restaurant or a café has been a running theme in my life since I was young. I have always loved to create food and feed the people I love.
And a little bit about your business story?
In 2020 I was working at Dive In Swimming Academy and Jacob was Managing Aldi Glenmore Park; both wanting a more self sustained life after being in lockdown. Still working on getting the church extension DA over the line, we came up with the idea of a horse float coffee cart operating from the church grounds. We found an old float and set about transforming it ourselves into the Horse and Harpy that everyone now knows. We had a vision with the name, the float, the church and the view on the main arterial road in and out of town.
In 2022 we embarked on the next part of our business journey. We started to roast our own beans. We have always been passionate about the quality of our coffee and wanted to take the next step exploring the world of roasting. We currently have 4 varieties that can be purchased at Horse and Harpy and our float uses our own house blend affectionately named “church blend”.
Why Silverdale for your business?
Silverdale chose us. Everything we have done so far has been organic. It’s as if the universe has aligned so many times to present us with the next opportunity. All we have to do is take it. Silverdale/ Warragamba is such a blossoming community, we are fortunate enough to be growing along with the population and being located at the gateway to an expanding tourism sector.
Interesting fact about your business?
My partner Jacob and I built the Horse and Harpy float from a Facebook market place impulse buy. We were in the middle of moving house and I saw an absolute bargain come up on my feed. We dropped everything and drove to Austral and the rest is history.
Any new plans for your business?
Our dream for the future is to keep making and selling great quality coffee. We are working towards supplying more wholesale coffee to other cafes. We want to see the Horse and Harpy name spread and expand. We have a genuine interest in helping and promoting other cafes and sharing our recipe for success.
What is a must-see in Wollondilly and why?
Given that I have 3 boys my must sees are usually adventurous. We love to Drive to Tahmoor. Not only is it a beautiful scenic drive but the destination has a fantastic facility to ride mountain bikes, BMX and scooters. Tahmoor DNA dirt jump park is a definite highlight.
The NSW rail museum is always a highlight no matter how old the boys get. They all still get a thrill seeing the trains from “Thomas”.
Closer to home we love popping up to the dam and walking around or riding bikes. The picnic facilities and grounds are a real pleasure to make use of. Norton’s basin is a local landmark located on the Nepean river. The walk is steep and not for the feint of heart. The boys love to take a rod and have had some success with trout, mullet and carp.
Just for fun....what was your first job?
My first job was waitressing at The Black Stump Penrith.
