Cafe at Riverway: The dog-friendly Townsville cafe with a piano and free pool

‘Food and a drink for under $20’ is the motto for Cafe at Riverway, and the little poolside spot is enchanting locals with its piano, dog-friendly service and rare ‘old school’ milkshakes.

‘Food and a drink for under $20’ is the motto for Cafe at Riverway, but regulars at the little poolside spot keep coming back for the piano, dog-friendly tables and old school milkshakes.

Owners Shaun and Debra Steele opened up the cafe in 2023, hoping to breath life into the Riverway precinct which was still largely empty after being smashed in the 2019 floods.

“We opened it from scratch, and it’s been great,” Mr Steele said.

“We’ve got the library right next to us, the free pool behind us, the walking path out the front and we also have the apartments along the river.”

The Steeles have been running the Itara and Jacana Riverway holiday apartments for 17 years, and expanded into the cafe business with their guests in mind.

The old restaurant complex at Riverway, which was focused on more formal dining, closed in 2016.

“The businesses compliment each other, if you’re staying in the apartments you get a voucher at the cafe,” Mr Steele said.

“We run 7am to 3pm, seven days a week.”

The family employ 10 staff, most of them young casuals.

Mrs Steele said they’ve had a lot of success employing high school kids.

Cafe at Riverway

“We go straight to Cathedral and Ryan to their hospitality departments, and there are kids there who are looking for a weekend job,” Mrs Steele said.

“We also have a piano sitting out the front and we get quite a few kids who play the piano at school who come along to sit at it.”

The cafe staff are also helped out by enthusiastic 11-year-old Brienna Steele, who works the register, takes out orders, and provides five-star service to the cafe’s many four-legged customers – including dog treats.

Cafe at Riverway helper Brienna Steele, 11, with the malted barley her parents use to make the cafe's 'old school' vanilla malt milkshakes.

Brienna said her favourite items on her parents’ menu were loaded fries and a milkshake.

“There is also a Nutella frappé, banana smoothie and vanilla malt milkshake,” she said.

Mr Steele said the malt milkshake was a particular favourite for him too.

“It’s old school and it’s beautiful, you don’t get them a lot these days,” he said.

Thuringowa Central resident Trevor Beams and his dog Silver came to Cafe on Riverway three times a week.

Cafe at Riverway helper Brienna Steele, 11, with Silver the dog, also 11. Silver and her owner Trevor Beams are regulars at the cafe.

“We do a loop of the pool and stop here, they are very dog friendly, there is normally three or four dogs sitting outside,” Mr Beams said.

“Silver knows straight away where we’re going. She recognises their uniform.”

Mr Steele said the motto of the cafe was keeping things simple for families.

“We focus on giving people a meal and a drink for under $20,” he said.

The community piano is located at Cafe on Riverway and is opened played by schoolchildren who are learning the piano.

While the cafe runs seven days a week, it closes for public holidays – except for a special tradition the Steeles have started at the Anzac Day Dawn Service.

At 3am on April 25, the family arrived at their shop to serve free tea, coffee and biscuits to veterans at the dawn service, which was being run just 150m from their door.

Cafe at Riverway

“We had quite a line up at one point, and we started with 500 Anzac biscuits and there aren’t any left,” Mr Steele said.

“We’ve done this two years in a row now, we do it ‘Sallyman’ style to keep the line moving instead of taking orders.

“In the army people would be out in the middle of nowhere and a Salvation Army man would appear with tea, cordial and biscuits for them.

“He was called a Sallyman, so it’s Sallyman Style.”

Cafe at Riverway can be found beside Citylibraries Riverway.

Originally published as Cafe at Riverway: The dog-friendly Townsville cafe with a piano and free pool