For years Vayda Menmuir spent hours at the old cinema cafe with her parents out for breakfast, but never did she think she'd be ripping up its carpets and painting its walls to leave her own mark on Katherine.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In just two months, the street facing offices of what was previously Equalitea have been demolished to make way for an imminent spacious and light-filled cafe.
It is a dual effort between Katherine cinema owner Dean Milner, who bought the building last year in a bid to revive films, and Vayda Menmuir.
But "it's not a cinema cafe", Menmuir is quick to say, although that doesn't mean there won't ever be cross over.
Less than one month out from opening, much is being kept under wraps - including the name.
What we can know is that the owners are aiming to be as different as possible from the growing collection of successful cafes already in existence in Katherine.
A new brand of coffee, nowhere else in the Territory yet, will be pouring into early morning cups. And the doors will be staying open late into the afternoon.
"We don't want to be like everyone else in town, expect different," Menmuir said.
In the Kitchen, the menu is still being finalised. "Think early morning, bustling coffee bar and fast-paced grab-and-go healthy lunches."
And finishing touches to the walls and lighting are still underway.
Regardless, the new cafe has been coming together rapidly, and is almost unrecognisable.
A large, wooden communal table takes centre stage on top of the newly stained concrete floor. The bar along the windows is the perfect workspace, with the addition of charging stations. And greenery is omnipresent, inside and out.
On top of full time jobs - Menmuir is an Aboriginal Health Worker and Milner is an optometrist - the quick transformation is impressive.
"It has been crazy, we've been here at ridiculous times of the night to get this going," Menmuir said.
"But when the coffee is on, I know it'll all be worth it.
"I always thought it would be so cool to open a place here in Katherine, and we saw there was a real gap in the market. We had the space and so we thought we'd have a crack at filling it.
"It's such a big space that is inside and cool, and that's something that Katherine doesn't really have yet."
Keep your eyes peeled for an offical open date, fingers crossed for February.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday at 6am from the Katherine Times. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here.