Blink and you'll miss it, but stop in at Boolaroo's Hippy Java Book Cafe and you may find it difficult to leave.
Julie West and her daughter Sunni opened the cafe just last week and it is being embraced as a calm, welcoming haven for lovers of books and coffee.
Make yourself comfortable in the cafe's cute little "book nook", or by the large shopfront windows where you can sip a cuppa and watch the world go by. Not that much happens at Boolaroo. It's a growing suburb near Lake Macquarie but its main street has, to date, retained its small town charm - and pace.
"Boolaroo is an amazing hidden gem. I have lived here for 22 years and absolutely love it," Julie tells Weekender.
"We have everything in our little town and now we have an awesome coffee shop.
"I wanted to create a place for people to come and get that warm, cosy feeling. To spread the love of amazing coffee, delicious food, and caring about people and our planet."
Adds Sunni: "The vibe we are aiming for is peaceful. A slice of tranquility in our sweet, small town. Almost everything in our cafe is secondhand, refurbished by Mum to suit the vibe she wanted.
"Our beautiful timber benchtop was done by Alan of Indo Street Designs but everything else was sourced by Mum secondhand and done up by her. She had a lot of help from her partner who is handy with the carpentry elements."
The pair live around the corner from the cafe and, walking home one day, noticed the 100-year-old former butchery was vacant.
"Mum immediately fell in love and wanted to bring it back to life," Sunni says.
"Many customers have compared us to quaint cafes in Bellingen, which I think is a perfect comparison. We have made it cosy and welcoming while still embracing a country town feel.
"We have a small room off to the side we call the book nook. In this space we have secondhand books that are for sale but are mainly used to browse while enjoying a coffee."
The cafe also sells handmade beeswax wraps, The Local Yolk free-range eggs, Sonoma Bakery bread and Upper Hunter Smokehouse beef jerky.
"We use Bills Beans coffee from Orange. Many years ago, on a family trip to Orange, Mum had a coffee from them and has kept a mental bookmark of them ever since - when we started this journey, she immediately knew who she wanted to be the supplier," Sunni says.
"Our bakery goods are from My Family Bakery. Our toasties, wraps and salads are all made in-house by Mum."
"My full cream milk is from a one-herd dairy near Dubbo, The Little Big Dairy Co. I also have alternative milks, one being Macamilk from Byron Bay. My aim is to support small businesses," Julie adds.
Hippy Java Book Cafe also sells new books. Sunni is the book lover and works at a book store in Charlestown.
"I am very passionate about books and reading. I had the idea of owning a bookshop cafe in year 8. Mum really liked the idea and now it's a reality," she says.
"In our main cafe area all the books are new and for sale. We stock genres like travel, gardening and inspiration, as well as crime fiction, general fiction, young adult and sci-fi, junior fiction and children's picture books. Our best sellers so far have been some of our gorgeous travel books and a title called Rewilding Kids. It is a non-fiction book filled with activities to do outside, like identifying Australian plants."
Feedback from customers has, Sunni says, been "magnificent".
"We have had a lot of excited locals stop by and have been very busy. Everyone loves the homemade, authentic feel we have."
