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A dream and a love of food and people fuelled Kate and Drury’s ambition to establish the trendy Drury Lane cafe and restaurant in Port Macquarie’s CBD.

They had just had their second daughter living in Sydney and couldn't afford to buy a home where they were living and didn't want to spend their lives commuting so they thought a sea change might be the best option.

They also wanted to open their own business and thought Port had a market for what they wanted to do. Plus having family in the area was a big plus!

Dru was the Head Chef of a bistro in Potts Point and Kate was a Photographic Producer. They are both passionate about their business and creating an experience for customers and a sense of community within that. In their spare time Dru loves cycling and Kate is learning ceramics at the moment.

Dru always dreamed of having his own café and restaurant. He had reached a point in his career that it was really the only way forward. Kate swore off hospitality at age 24 and travelled, working her way up in the photographic industry. After having kids their priorities changed and they really wanted to create something that combined their love of food and bringing people together.

“I feel like we have achieved our goals in many ways with Drury Lane, though you never feel like they are complete because we are always setting new ones. But when we look back over the past 5 years we have been running Drury Lane, regardless of all the tough bits true to any small business, there is a real sense of wow, look what we have created.”

Kate and Dru have very different roles within the business but balance each other out and work well as a team, complimenting each other’s different strengths.

“When it came to selling our fi rst house and taking the next step to buy a new one, we faced some roadblocks. We found out that running a small business can make it harder to get loans and dealing with the big banks proved challenging as decisions are outsourced, they do not tend to look at personal circumstances.”

“We had our pre-approval from one of the big banks pulled on us just as we were ready to exchange contracts on the sale of our house and purchase of our new house, this was really stressful.”

“Coastline was recommended to us by a friend and we went to them with our situation, the major difference was that we felt like they were dealing with us as real people, not just a number. They were extremely efficient in processing our loan application, helped us find the best way to manage our home and business loans, were honest and cared about our outcome. Thanks to the team at Coastline, we did not miss out on our new home!”

Kate and Drury had investigated several options both with their lender at the time, another big bank and Coastline.

“Coastline held not only the best loan option, but by far the best customer service. We now own our dream home! Coastline made the whole process very straightforward for us, they set up our internet banking for us and made the whole loan process a much more pleasant experience.”

Kate and Drury are now focusing on their future. They would like to take time out to travel in the next few years, but with the current situation they are just grateful to be in their new home and live in such a fortunate part of the world.