What goes on behind the scenes in Vapiano

TOUCH of Toowoomba brings you a scene from the lives of four Toowoomba people each week. Who are they? And what do they love about our great city?

PASTA PEOPLE: Working at Vapiano are: (from left) Margarita Perez, Israel Chapman, Liam Geeves and Thomasina Nevin. Picture: James Lawrey

TOUCH OF TOOWOOMBA brings you a scene from the lives of four Toowoomba each week. Who are they? And what do they love about our great city?

Where: Vapiano, Grand Central

When: Tuesday, 11am

Margarita Perez

I AM the general manager of the Vapiano store here in Toowoomba.

We are very excited that we are here. It has been a great response from the people since we opened.

We have had a little bit of feedback that we are listening to and we are implementing new strategies to make sure that everyone is happy and this is the favoured place for people to come and dine in.

I have been living in Toowoomba for only two months. I moved here from the store in Melbourne.

I love Toowoomba. It's a very calm and quiet city. It's beautiful with lots of flowers everywhere.

I feel I can breathe fresh air all the time and it's nice that it's not a very busy city. However it is certainly growing.

My favourite part of Toowoomba is the amazing views. I went to Picnic Point for the first-time last week and it was just beautiful. The view is amazing.

It feels really good to be there in the afternoon and just relax a little bit.

Liam Geeves

I'M A pasta chef at Vapiano. I really enjoy it and I'm going to be operating in the pizza section as well soon so I'm excited about that.

I've been in Toowoomba since I was 15 and I'm 21 now, so six years.

The reception from Toowoomba to Vapiano has been good. There are a few things to work out but at the end of the day we are on the right track and we are going to be doing very good.

Toowoomba has grown a lot since I've been here. When I first moved up here I remember everything used to close quite early.

I really like Toowoomba. Honestly my favourite area is the Newtown area because I really like the parks around there and love the Newtown pub. Everyone is really friendly there.

Thomasina Nevin

I'VE been in Toowoomba for 21 years. I love it.

I love the atmosphere, I love the vibe and I love how it feels very safe.

Toowoomba has changed a lot. I was sceptical at first with all the changes but Vapiano is a good change, the new Grand Central is a good change, some of the changes are really good.

As anybody living in somewhere for that long, they'd be sceptical about changes but it all turned out to be really great.

I was too young before to actually realise that we barely had anything. The best we had was Sizzler. Now Walton Stores has popped up as well as the new Grand Central stores so there are so many more options now.

I used to think the best place to go was Hungry Jacks because there wasn't much variety at all but now all these new places have popped up and there are so many different options, the question now is, where do we go?

Israel Chapman

I'VE been in Toowoomba for  a year now. I come from Kingaroy . I really love Toowoomba, it's much better for me.

I love having a mad shopping centre, the parks, everything is just so beautiful up here.

My favourite aspect of Toowoomba has got to be the people, though.

People are kind and genuine around here.

Toowoomba is a very young city. There's a lot of young people, clubbing is huge up here and people are adjusting to the new night life and array of food places to choose from to have a nice dinner.
 

Originally published as What goes on behind the scenes in Vapiano