From Harvest to providence – new chapter for Newrybar deli

A NEW café serving coffee, smoothies and local produce has opened at the site of the former Harvest Deli in Newrybar.

Anthony Baker and Penny Loughnan jumped at the chance to open The Providore when Zane Grier from neighbouring Newrybar Merchants, whose family owns the site, got in touch after the much-loved farm-to-table restaurant Harvest and accompanying deli closed suddenly in December.

Originally from Melbourne, the couple also launched COMBI in Byron Bay in 2016, which they sold in 2021 to open the plant-based café Vagabond at Habitat in the arts and industry estate.

“We’d just had a baby and we wanted to downsize, which is a contradiction to what we are doing now,” Baker said.

They also opened the nearby B Smoothie Bar a couple of years later.

The pair had been visiting Newrybar for many years before making the move north and were taken by its strong sense of community.

“We love that village,” Baker said. “There’s something very special about it.

“Even before relocating to Byron we’d always come up and go to Harvest.

“We’re really just offering amazing coffee back on the verandah, which the previous operator had taken off.

“The local community love sitting on the verandah and on the garden bench.

“We have an amazing gardener Richard La-Face and we’re doing a garden picking plate, so any of the produce that we sell in The Providore we showcase on the garden plate.

“A lot of the herbs, lettuce and some of the fruit that’s grown in the garden is served on the plate.”

Other offerings include cold-pressed juices and frittatas from Fels Kitchen, cake from Nera Sweetgoods and toasted sandwiches.

“There’s no kitchen so we can’t cook anything on site, but we can put a sandwich in the toasted sandwich press,” Baker said.