NSW Premier Morris Iemma was one of over 800 people who stopped for a coffee and a cannolli at the All Souls' church cafe during the Leichhardt Italian Festa on Sunday.
"A lot of people came through our church property," says All Souls rector Tim Foster.
"We had two coffee machines going non-stop for six hours."
"The Premier was tired and just having a break from the crowds, but when I pulled out the camera, Mr Iemma's eyes lit up and he jumped behind the counter and started making cappuccinos for us. It was great. We really needed the extra hands."
A highlight of the day was the church-run Fair Trade market.
"We made much more money than I expected," says Tim.
"We are now proposing to buy a loom for a village in India."
Evangelistic short-comings
About half a dozen people also stayed on at the cafe and went to All Souls evening service when the Festa had wrapped up.
However Tim wants to make it clear that he does not see the outreach as "an amazing evangelistic success'.
"It was worthwhile because it was a positive community interaction, but it wasn't as explicitly evangelistic as I would have liked," Tim says.
Mr Foster says he was disappointed that a planned Iron Chef competition didn't come together on the day, because of a lack of human resources.
"Leichhardt is a foodie area. It is Little Italy. Around here people will pay $80 just to hear a lecture on spices. My idea is to use food to connect people to the gospel."
"My plan was to have Christian chefs giving cooking demonstrations and interview them while they were cooking about their testimony and explain the gospel. But you need Christian professional chefs to really make that work."
"This was the best we could do with the human resources we have in our small church. Even just serving the coffees stretched us very thin."
