No stopping highway waffle popularity

Their Waffles & Jaffles business on the Dukes Highway across the road from the well-known painted Coonalpyn Silos has dramatically increased in popularity since Claudia and Rachid Ait-Touati moved their family from Brisbane 17 years ago.

"We're originally from the Netherlands, but when I was 18, I left to start a pub in a very small town in Belgium," Claudia said.

"It had been a life-long dream to live in Australia, so 10 years later we came here.

"We started off in Brisbane, where I was working as a translator, but we couldn't get a permanent visa.

"Luckily, we ended up getting sponsored by SA, and after looking around, found Coonalpyn to be quite affordable.

"We always wanted to go rural, and it had good broadband for my work, so this is where we settled."

Intially, Claudia said the plan was to run a care farm, but they needed more money to fund it.

"At the same time, my teenage son [Chabane] wanted a laptop, but there were no local jobs," she said.

"So we came up with the idea of selling waffles."

Claudia said waffles were a big part of Dutch culture.

"And we missed eating them," she said.

So they set about refining the perfect 'Liege waffle' recipe - crunchy on the outside and soft inside.

Liege - Rachid's hometown - is the largest city in Belgium, situated not far from the Netherlands.

Chabane started out small, with the side hustle doing "small events and things for friends locally".

But their waffles were so popular, that it encouraged Chabane to set-up a marquee on the side of the highway "just on Sundays".

"But then more and more people started to ask whether we could do more days and it just grew every year, extending to Saturdays, then Fridays to now four days a week, and all seven during school holidays," Claudia said.

Three years after the marquee start-up, they opened the current shop building, which fronts the Dukes Highway, across from the painted silos.

They also expanded the menu to include a variety of toppings and sides, and savoury items including jaffles.

"We decided on jaffles as it pays homage to the European version of the toasted sandwich - a Croque Monsieur," Claudia said.

The business took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when the borders were closed.

"We had a lot of loyal Vic customers, it was a sad time," Claudia said.

"We were very lucky that South Australians really tried to fill the void with support - we survived."

Business is now thriving, with 10 people employed.

The Ait-Touatis are so busy that their nature therapy care farm has taken a bit of a back seat, while Claudia is also still trying to finish off her final year of studying a Bachelor in Dementia Care.

"We still run the care farm, with Rachid doing most of the behind the scenes stuff, but it has been a bit on the backburner recently due to the popularity of the shop," she said.

"We hope at some point we will be able to employ somone to help run either the shop or the farm to be able to run both businesses at the same time!"

For now though, they're not complaining about the strong support from the community.

"It's an awesome place to live," Claudia said.