The Post& Rail

The heritage Cobb & Co building on Riddoch Street, alongside Petticoat Lane and the Mary MacKillop church, houses one of Penola's more unusual enterprises: part cooking and art school, part cafe, part providore and nursery. It is the project of Cindy Bunt, a cook, gardener, artist and author of titles such as Fall in Love with Baking, and the everyday cafe trades Wednesday to Sunday on scones, Devonshire tea and country plates like the house Manwich. Plants raised on site fill a small retail nursery, and the calendar turns on hands-on cooking classes, preserving sessions and art workshops pitched at friends and travelling groups. In a town defined by wine and pilgrimage, it is a food-and-craft destination in its own right, grounded in one of Penola's oldest buildings.