Opportunity for a bite of the cherry

For the first time, the cafe is for sale, after the owners decided it was time for a change. Queensland Country Life took a trip down memory with some of the longstanding staff members.

Tucked away in the small town of Bell, at the foothills of the Bunya mountains, the cafe, adorned with vintage and retro antiques, has a reputation in the region for the best premium steak sandwich and freshly baked goodies.

Local resident and staff member Tracey Newton said the the idea for the cafe was dreamed up by the two owners Annette Facer and Kate Toomerford.

"The two lovely ladies got together and decided that they could open a cafe because they'd both had experience with catering," she said.

"They both worked at Jimbour house when they met, found a business partner, and thought 'we can do this'."

Annette and Kate live 20 kilometres in opposite directions from the cafe, which had the ideal layout for what they had in mind for their venture.

Annette said the building was originally the old Bell Freemason's hall, which was later turned into a patchwork and coffee shop.

"It had a beautiful big area at the back, which became our catering space," she said.

"There was a group of patchwork ladies that met every Tuesday and we thought, at least we would have the patchwork ladies, who came every Tuesday to support us, and they did.

"It flourished from that point."

Tracey said In addition to the cafe and onsite events, they'd had an extensive catering business for offsite functions, but were slowing down in anticipation of the sale of the business.

"We have catered for events like the Opera at Jimbour and Big Skies festival," she said.

"At the moment we are paring back a little bit, we are doing in house catering at the cafe and a few functions that we had committed to last year."

There are around 10 core staff members that work at the cafe and five young local girls who work on the weekends.

Bell local and staff member Maria Staunton said the work environment at Pips 'n' Cherries was quite special.

"We have lovely customers, the staff are happy and we share a love of baking and making jams and chutneys.

"It's just the best place to work...one of the best places I have ever worked in my life.

"We have been able to attend functions which are special, where the people are happy to be there and appreciative."

Tracey said the Pips 'n' Cherries team had been part of many milestone celebrations over the years, including family reunions, baby showers and birthdays.

"The locals support us wonderfully," she said.

"We have catered for lots of 80th and 90th birthday celebrations and Bell Care, the local aged care group, supports us well.

"We catered for a local man recently who turned 102, we also catered for his 100th birthday at the RSL.

"He is a member of the RSL and fought in the second world war."

She said Bell is a transient community, and whilst they have their regular customers their patronage changes from year to year, depending on what is going on in the region.

"When they were building the wind towers out here we had a lot of business," she said.

"There are lots of caravanning folks that come down from the Bunya Mountains, as well as local Air B&B's that recommend us.

"Word of mouth is the best advertisement, it really sells the place."