Stanwell Park kiosk reopens

On Friday, June 25, Bostin Brew Co served their first coffees at Stanwell Park kiosk, and locals have high hopes the business will live up to its name.

“The owners come from the UK and over there, ‘bostin’ means ‘amazing, fantastic, exciting’. That’s what we want to be,” said Bostin Brew Co’s Newcastle venue manager Elise Williams, who’ll also oversee operations at Stanwell Park.

Change at the kiosk has been eagerly awaited, following a flood of complaints about the previous management. However, in June, Council told 2508 a one-year tender had been awarded to Advanced Catering Systems – the same company behind the unpopular Pantry, trading under a new name.

A council spokesperson said: “The competitive process was extensive and required applicants to address a number of items from community feedback including community engagement, operating hours, menu and branding.

“The tenant also currently operates the Council-owned kiosk at Corrimal Tourist Park.”

Elise said Bostin was a “separate direction” for the company. “It’s a branch off of Advanced Catering. But it’s more of a premium product.”

All the staff are new, Elise said. Jacqueline Sparks will be the manager at Stanwell Park.

Elise said kiosk would open at 7am and potentially stay open until 7pm on weekends. “We are more breakfast and lunch orientated.”

The menu was not finalised at press time but could include items on the Newcastle menu, such as classic fish and chips with mushy peas ($22). For the kids, Elise could confirm a park favourite: “A big decent-sized bowl of hot chips is $7.”

Elise was planning a soft launch for June 25, due to the Sydney Covid outbreak. “It’ll be more of a takeaway concept at first.”

Following some sniping on social media, which did not come from the new team, Elise said Bostin aims to “build relationships with the community as well as just put out good coffee and good food”.

“For us, community is a big thing. For example, we went with a coffee bean where we use Bear and the Beard, through Seven Miles from Sydney, where every bag we buy, a dollar of that goes to Bear Cottage, which is a children’s hospice.”