A beloved venue on Horton Street, Port Macquarie is back to serving tea, coffee and scones to the public after closing it's doors over two years ago.
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The Port Macquarie CWA Branch has reopened their tea rooms after making the difficult decision to close the iconic venue in 2021.
Secretary treasurer Lynn Moore said the branch decided to open up the tea rooms again after a meeting in November last year.
"Everybody said yes, yes," she said.
"We had so many people in the branch that were enthusiastic about it."
The tea rooms initially shut in March 2020 during the COVID-19.
But with members concerned about the persisting pandemic in 2021, the branch made the decision to permanently close the tea rooms.
"We had a lot of long standing members that were terrified that they might catch COVID-19," Ms Moor said.
"They kept it open as long as they could."
The tea rooms had been the branch's main means of fundraising, leaving the volunteers to find other ways of raising money including opening the rooms for hire to other organisations.
"Everybody found it was hard to fundraise during COVID-19," Ms Moor said.
"But we've been really fortune and since COVID-19....we've been lucky.
"We've actually got new members in and that's helped in opening up the tea rooms."
Positive response
The doors opened to the public on Friday, January 19 and have received a positive response not just from members but from the public as well.
"People were coming from Kendall, Wauchope and all sorts of places," Ms Moore said.
"We've been really heartened by the fact that everyone is thrilled to see us open again."
With the rooms still available for hire, the branch is able to sell tea, coffee, scones and handicraft from the tea rooms to help raise funds for the CWA.
The tea rooms are currently only open every first and third Friday as well as special days such as Australia Day however this could change in the future.
"We thought the deal was we do it for six months and see how we went," Ms Moore said.
"But we'll see how we go."
The Port Macquarie CWA branch tea rooms are open from 9am to 12pm on the first and third Friday of every month.
Emily Walker
Reporter at Macleay Argus and Port Macquarie News.
Reporter at Macleay Argus and Port Macquarie News.
