IF you’ve never heard of Rhona’s, you’ve really missed out.
Rhona’s at the Beach, found adjacent to the sea wall on Gorey Coast Road, is a beach café that many would give legendary status. 2025 marks its 20th birthday.
Opened by Rhona Hewitt in 2005, Rhona’s has been operating day-in, day-out come rain, wind or shine to the delight of its now loyal customers.
On its milestone anniversary, the face behind the bacon rolls and fish finger sandwiches sat down with the JEP to reflect on her journey so far, which has seen beautiful memories and friendships made and a Pride of Jersey award won.
Rhona’s was not a planned venture for the Scot, who said that the café was opened off the back of a moment of panic and vulnerability.
“I had actually been made redundant,” Rhona said.
One of the last staff members to be let go from Ann Street Brewery after around 18 years. It was a known inevitability, she explained, but still a shock when it happened.
“That day came, and I was going on holiday the next day,” she said.
“I was in a complete daze, I had a company flat, a company car. I had everything,” Rhona continued.
“I felt very, very vulnerable. I had a 13-year-old boy at the time.”
While on holiday, Rhona had an idea that would dictate the next two decades of her life.
“I kept thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’,” she said.
“The thing that really stuck with me was that I didn’t want to work for anybody else ever again. So, I started to think about what it was that I would want to do and that was to run a café.”
With the idea firmly planted, it was then a fateful trip to her GP for a blood test that solidified her plans.
“My doctor knew about the redundancy and I said I wanted to open a café,” Rhona explained.
“He said, ‘My last patient is selling their café’.”
Twenty years later, Rhona believes her redundancy from the brewery was “the best thing that ever happened”.
Without much experience in hospitality, Rhona was determined to make her café a success.
Even with a drizzly opening day in June 2005, when they took “next to nothing” in the till, Rhona didn’t look back and she has created a community hub and fundraising hotspot of her kiosk looking out over Grouville Bay.
“We are loved,” Rhona said, “which is the best thing that you could ever want. Your business is your baby and you put your heart into it, so to get that love back is really great.”
To prove the impact of her business, Rhona was named Community Champion of the Year at the 2023 Pride of Jersey awards, something she said she was “hugely proud of”.
But other standout moments in her café’s 20-year history are even more sentimental.
“On two occasions, people have come for a crab sandwich from me for a dying relative who has asked for that on their deathbed,” Rhona explained.
“What an honour.”
Rhona was also invited to the funeral of a regular customer who came to her café almost every day for a cup of tea – a fond memory mentioned in the eulogy.
Reflecting on those emotional experiences, Rhona said she is “privileged” that her café had been “so special to somebody”.
“When I opened the café, I never really imagined the future, but to see it now. It’s breathtaking,” she said.
To establish the venue to where it is today has undoubtedly taken hard work and dedication. For Rhona, that meant working for the most part of 15 years with only a few days off. But looking back, she said she should have taken her foot off the gas a bit.
“I wish I’d learned earlier to delegate,” Rhona said.
She explained she truly learnt that lesson during the pandemic, when only outdoor venues could open, and when Rhona’s popularity went through the roof.
“We were probably one of only about ten or 12 places on the Island that were allowed to remain open,” Rhona said.
“Suddenly everyone developed a love of being outdoors again, which I think was one of the only great things about Covid.”
Since then, she explained her customer base increased dramatically and has stayed as high.
“Everything changed from there [the pandemic],” Rhona added.
Another key turning point for her business came about during lockdown – a part of Rhona’s that seems inherently part of its purpose. The fundraising fish finger sandwich.
Rhona explained that before the Island entered lockdown, she was still a keen fundraiser for Island charities but fundraised through event gatherings. Evidently, that was no longer possible in 2020.
Still keen to raise money for local charities, she instead concocted a new way of doing so. Dedicating one menu item to sell for charity and that was a fish finger sandwich.
Safe to say that was a very successful decision which has propelled her total fundraising amount to a massive £55,000 that has supported causes from cancer support, to mental health, autism, baby loss and homelessness.
In 2025, the café is supporting Enable Jersey that supports and advocates for disabled Islanders and their families.
The fundraising secret? Rhona said that anyone can raise money as long as they do it through “what they do best”.
That impact has caused ripples that have spread through various areas of the community. Last year, when fundraising for MND Jersey – which supports Islanders and families affected by the incurable motor neurone disease – an Islander with the condition visited the café to personally thank Rhona and her staff.
But in the last 12 months, Rhona has had to turn her attention to herself for the first time in a long time.
After finding an unusual bump on her leg, Rhona was diagnosed with melanoma last July. Working until the day she received the phone call from the consultant; Rhona has not worked at her beloved beach café a day since.
“Work always came first,” Rhona said.
“I left [work] on 6 July last year thinking I’d be back in three to six weeks, and here I am, a year later, not back at work yet because the fatigue is incredible.”
Having endured procedures to remove the skin cancer before gruelling rounds of chemotherapy Rhona has had to lean on the community she has worked so hard to create for the first time.
But taking a step back from Rhona’s and trusting others to take the lead has not been easy, she explained. However, she must focus on her own recovery.
“The one thing that I say to myself all the time is ‘It won’t always be like this’. And that’s what you’ve got to hold on to because otherwise I’d become incredibly frustrated,” Rhona said.
“My whole focus is on my recovery and then we see where the future takes us.”
“I just want the café to carry on doing good,” she added.
Although she is not behind the counter, Rhona is very much part of the operation having given herself the responsibility of washing all the tea towels and aprons, and not forgetting the all-important fish finger delivery.
Auntie Rhona also remains the firm favourite amongst her young Scottish relatives for the unlimited supply of free ice-cream and her beachy garden.
Even though owning a small business has its challenges in Jersey, the largest being staffing which Rhona said was only made worse by Brexit. Her fateful decision to open a café has given Islanders a trusted, warm place to go to for a bite to eat and a chat for two decades.
To celebrate, Enable Jersey has organised a Beach Bash family day at the café to thank Rhona for all she’s done on Friday 8 August from 3pm to 7pm.
