Empire opened on the morning of 24 December 2002. Originally I’d hoped to open on 14 October because its my birthday but construction and life etc got in the way. No surprise there I suppose.

Originally I’d wanted a casual breakfast/lunch venue linked to surfing and beach life but as time marched on it was obvious the shop needed to open evenings too for a number of reasons – the most important one being demand :-).

One of the incredible things about the shop is how little it took financially to open and do business. Of course I’ve since poured almost all the profits back into the business for essentials such as the tiled floors and recently the sexy, rotating, beautifully lit cake fridge :-D.

Empire is, was and likely always will be about lifestyle for me. I live about 50m away with a view over the ocean; walk to work; check the surf by rolling over in the morning – you get the idea. I believe the lifestyle choice is a direct backlash from working in hotels and high end restaurants with ridiculous (but necessary) hours.

The shop opens 7 a.m. ….. most days. Getting up in the morning is something I’ve always sucked at. Fortunately my head chef, Craig, is a real morning person and something of a workhorse so that hiccup has largely been solved.

Evenings Empire is open Wednesday to Saturday. The evenings are mellow, most of the time, with good support locals, tourists and students from the George Whitfield College plus lecturers and students from A.I.M.S.

As a chef the focus of Empire has always been food, and by that I mean yummy, tasty, wholesome food. Health food seems so dessicated to me, like dried fruit vs the original – scary, shriveled and unsettling.

The downside of my food focus is I knew little of service – something which became pretty obvious after a very short time and which hurt the business. I’ve spent much time improving service and at this stage its ok …. but I’m pessimistic and cynical so I’ll not be surprised if something goes wrong soon :-/

Anyway … this site is supposed to be Empire Cafe’s presence on the web – I’ve lots of ideas and few secrets so I thought maybe I’d post recipes and food related information and opinion (which should set me up as flamebait :-) )

If you have not visited Empire before please do – chances are you’d leave full and happy.

All the best.