Before explaining the decade of Tomboy, I should go back to the dreams of Tomboy and where it all began for me.
Tomboy was my Banana Cafe.
The concept was created by eight-year-old me when I developed a love of baking with my mum. My first banana cake started as most do — light and fluffy, speckled with chocolate chips and small morsels of caramelised banana. Mum was an excellent baker and teacher. What eventuated after many trials was essentially chocolate goo with a hint of banana. I pushed the chocolate chips as far as they could go.
To be clear, by this stage Mum had adopted the phrase “If you want it, you make it” so she had no hand in this decadent science experiment.
I would still happily eat it. Just like I would eat bowls of creamed butter and sugar. This too was pushed to the point where it became aggressively crunchy from too much sugar. yet still delicious. I don’t think mum ever knew I just creamed butter and sugar to eat alone in my room.
During the trial-and-error stages of baking, the concept of a cafe came into focus. A banana cafe. Everything banana. Banana cake, banana muffins, banana splits, banana pancakes. The list went on and on.
The dream developed so far that banana-skin umbrellas, banana chips set in resin on the floor, and banana-themed toilet seats became entirely non-negotiable. The plan was to take over Khandallah Village with my banana cafe. The dream was fuelled enthusiastically by family members and my parents’ friends, who happily indulged my wild ideas while offering small practical suggestions to help shape the concept. The uniform was hotly debated and, from memory, eventually landed on a full banana suit for optimum practicality.
College came and went, and I found myself lingering around the edges of no man’s land with failed high school qualifications and very little confidence. I had worked for Ruth and Paul Pretty for the previous four years and, as a little girl, spent many weekends and school holidays dusting bottles and making hampers in Dad’s liquor stores. Customer service has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
I don’t know who first found the hotel management school in New Plymouth, but it became the starting point for putting real focus into my career. By then it wasn’t just baking that captivated me, it was ownership, creativity and entrepreneurialism.
I travelled and worked around the world before eventually moving back to Wellington at twenty-one. By twenty-two, I had a baby to raise on my own, and although my path was a little bumpy, it somehow stayed on course.
Tomboy was ready by 2016. My son, Tomislav, had started school, and I was determined to show him that following your dreams is possible no matter what obstacles stand in your way. He became the pinnacle of my focus. Tomboy was a necessity for him just as much as it was for me.
I had finally jumped the fence I had been lurking on for so long. Through my son, I found myself and Looking back now, it feels surreal to think about those early days and the instinctive drive as a mother to protect and teach.
Tomboy is more than a cafe. It is my life’s work, still evolving. The bricks and mortar may now be closed, but the dream remains alive, shifting and growing into new realities every day.
To those who have been with me on this journey, thank you from the bottom of my heart. And to the newcomers joining now, thank you too. Community is everything, and we don’t need to be in the same place to feel it. I look forward to the next phase of tomboys growth.
Love Kate x
