Oggies Cafe is tops with Caf? magazine. The Wilson St cafe is the Wanganui region winner in the magazine's 2005 best cafe awards. Guyton St's Red Eye Cafe was the Wanganui runner-up. Cafes nationwide were visited anonymously and judged on their coffee, food, service and ambience. The judges said Oggies was "a greatlittle cafe where there's always a friendly attitude from the staff, where the food is excellent and coffee consistent". Karen and Robert Sewell bought what was Garden Gate Cafe four years ago and renamed it Oggies. Mrs Sewell's grandmother Olive is known as Oggie. A chef, Mrs Sewell works at both Oggies, sharing the cooking duties with Penny Gregan, and the couple's new venture, Indigo. Mrs Sewell said Oggies had a great number of regular customers who felt at home and appreciated pre-mixes were not used. Wanganui's cafe scene had gone ahead really fast and there were probably double the number of cafes from four years ago, reflecting more people were eating out. "Coffee's such a big part of people's days these days." Bambina, in Ponsonby, Auckland, was the national best cafe winner and Riverton's Beach House Cafe runner-up. The Taranaki winner was Macfarlane's in Inglewood.
