Healthy eating inspires new Coolum business

After working in top restaurants across Sydney Jason Mills and Andrew Nardi decided a sea change was in order.

Heirloom Wholefoods in Coolum Beach is owned and operated by Jason Mills and Andrew Nardi.

After working in top restaurants across Sydney Jason Mills and Andrew Nardi decided a sea change was in order.

The duo left behind New South Wales and haven't looked back starting a new life and business on the Sunshine Coast.

Heirloom Wholefoods in Coolum Beach is just 10 weeks old but already has had rave reviews from customers.

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"We moved up to Coolum to get away from the rat race and we just wanted to bring healthy food down to Coolum Beach," owner Jason Mills said.

"I used to work in pretty good restaurants in sydney but I was doing big hours, like 80 hours a week and not really getting to see my family so we wanted to get out of Sydney and moved up here.

"I'm just trying to work on that work life balance and for me it's actually being able to get out of the kitchen and meet and greet customers."

Despite the change of scenery choosing to open in the midst of a pandemic was stressful for the pair.

"I came up and had six months off and enjoyed the beaches and I was loving life and then I started a business and I was hating life for the first four weeks and now I'm loving it again," Mr Mills said.

Heirloom Wholefoods in Coolum Beach is owned and operated by Jason Mills and Andrew Nardi.

Mr Mills said the focus for Heirloom Wholefoods was to keep it very simple and focus on keeping the quality high.

"It's not necessarily a cafe, more of a salad and coffee bar," he said.

"We keep the menu very simple - we have four toasties and four salads as we focus on quality.

"They're really fresh salads Asian inspired, similar to a poke bowl and the toasties are a bit of a gourmet spin on your regular toasties.

"We also do coffee, we do normal pastries, we also do raw treats which are all dairy free gluten free, refined sugar free and we're just about to add in some shakes to the menu."

It's been so far so good for the Coolum Beach-based business with plenty of foot traffic through the doors.

"It's been amazing, we've had really good feedback from everybody," he said,

"The community response has been really heartwarming, we've had a lot of people spreading the word."

Heirloom Wholefoods has four gourmet toasties and four salads on the menu.

 

Both Jason and Andrew already have plans for the business' future with expansion into an online ordering platform in the works.

"I think we're really trying to focus on bringing a healthy option out to places that don't necessarily have it, like the industrial estate out at Coolum, some local businesses in the surrounding areas like Noosa down to Maroochydore," he said.

"Then hopefully setting up an online system for people to order weekend packages and airbnb perhaps."

Heirloom Wholefoods is located at 1776 David Low Way and is open seven days a week.

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