Inside Edwina Bartholomew’s ambitious plan to open a rural cafe in weeks

In a whirlwind fortnight Australian television presenter Edwina Bartholomew and former journalist Neil Varcoe have purchased, renovated and launched their new cafe.

It is a far cry from the Sunrise host’s morning routine, with the much-loved Ms Bartholomew making lucrative business moves outside the spotlight.

Located in the small central western NSW town of Carcoar, the couple have expanded their mini rural empire to take on the local cafe: The Village Grocer.

Meanwhile, they’re undergoing another mammoth country project, renovating a historical hotel in Carcoar into a boutique hotel they’re calling Saltash Farm.

Saltash Farm has been years in the making, while The Village Grocer was purchased, renovated and up in running in a short 14 day timeframe.

On Sunday, it all came together.

“For us, it’s really important that the main street is thriving and all the other businesses in the town are doing well,” Ms Bartholomew said.

Neil Varcoe and Edwina Bartholomew’s new cafe the Village Grocer in Carcoar has opened, pictured with their kids and local workers. Photo: Supplied

It’s part of the bigger picture for their family and the small town they’ve come to love.

“It was about making sure there was a great energy in town and when the cafe came up for sale, we bought it.

“It’s been an unbelievable effort to get it open today and it’s full of people reading the paper and eating beautiful pastries.”

The news comes after Ms Bartholomew revealed she was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia on the Sunrise breakfast show in September 2024. Just months later, she said treatment had been working in her favour.

The 42-year-old has never shied from challenges.

Despite having never renovated or opened a cafe before, Ms Bartholomew and Mr Varcoe set themselves an “ambitious time frame,” of two weeks to be up and running in line with Orange Food Week and while the Millthorpe Markets were running, as well as in time for the Easter long weekend.

Yesterday – it all came together.

Putting it together

Getting The Village Grocer up and running aligned perfectly with the name, as it took a village and “basically roping in everyone we know,” Bartholomew added.

“We’ve had locals who’ve made mirrors, the menu for the wall … all amazing local producers who brought all their stuff to us because we didn’t have time to go and get it.

“My best friend’s husband came out and painted for us because we couldn’t find a local painter.”

Outside The Village Grocer Carcoar, now open after a two week renovation. Photo: Supplied.

Powered by local produce and people

Focusing on local businesses, produce and people, The Village Grocer features a small five item menu and a shelf full of homemade goodies.

“We wanted to keep things simple. It’s a small town, mainly for locals and visitors on the weekends so we wanted to keep food waste to an absolute minimum,” she said.

For their opening the offering included a potato and leek soup, breakfast frittata, carrot cake, hazelnut biscuits from a local farm who have been growing hazelnuts since the 90s and the ‘colonel’ jaffle named after a 80-year-old local named John.

On the shelf you’ll find lemon butter, raspberry jam, fig and onion and tomato chutney and products from Langa Farm just to name a few.

Ms Bartholomew sourced much of the furniture herself from the local antique store, marketplace finds from different locations across Sydney as well as even using her Great Grandmothers teapots.

The shelves are stocked with local jams, bread, relishes and more. Photo: Supplied.

The bigger picture

It’s all part of growing Saltash Farm, the hotel they took on in November 2022 that is now set to open in March 2027.

“It’s (Saltash Farm) a really ginormous project and it’s taken longer to get to this point than we planned but in the end it’s kind of worked out well.”

“For us it’s not about next week, next month or next year, it’s really a long-term project and we’re investing a lot in Saltash Farm so for us it just made sense to have two businesses that worked together.

Despite and the fuel crisis underway, Ms Bartholomew said they were looking at the bigger picture.

“There are hundreds of small businesses out here that are really suffering, so if people have the means to support particularly over Easter, it would mean so much to small regional towns.”