Cafe 360 has become a familiar stop on the Isle of Man Business Park, serving office workers, visitors and cycling enthusiasts with quick, satisfying food to fuel the day ahead.

The popular café is also one of this year’s winners of Love Manx’s Manx Menu initiative - an annual campaign that celebrates local hospitality venues by encouraging them to create dishes using ingredients sourced from Manx farmers, producers and suppliers.

Cafe 360’s winning dish was rosemary and garlic roasted Manx lamb, served with heritage carrots and parsnips and finished with a homemade mint jus – the natural cooking juices from the meat and vegetables reduced into a rich gravy.

Behind the kitchen is Sascha Horsthuis, operational manager for Woodbourne Kitchen, which took over Cafe 360 in 2024.

She believes initiatives such as the Manx Menu play an important role in supporting the island’s food and drink sector.

She said: ‘We entered last year as well. I think it’s important because food and beverage is unfortunately struggling on the island. Lots of places are closing.

‘With the Manx Menu you can encourage people to want to work in hospitality and food and beverage if they are local.

‘People don’t always realise that farmers here are available to supply produce because they sometimes get forgotten about. It’s easy to just pick up the phone and order from a big supplier instead.

‘Manx Menu highlights the local farmers and suppliers and suddenly you realise you can actually use them as local producers. That’s why it’s important that the Manx Menu continues because smaller producers can sometimes be overlooked.’

For their second year entering the competition, the team decided to take a different approach.

Rather than producing something typical of the café’s everyday menu, they opted to create a dish that pushed them creatively.

Sascha said: ‘Every day we serve café-style food that people can come in and enjoy quickly.

‘Last year we entered something that you could have on the menu every day, but this time we thought we should go above and beyond and try something different.

‘Our competitors are often in another league when it comes to restaurants, so we wanted to create something that showed what we could do. I think that’s what helped set us apart this year.’

Cafe 360 sources many of its ingredients from local suppliers, including Harrison and Garrett for the lamb and Robinson’s for fresh vegetables.

Sascha believes using local produce is not just about flavour, but also about strengthening food security on the island.

She said: ‘Food security is a big thing for the Isle of Man. The majority of what we consume still relies on imports, but we do have a strong local farming sector.

‘We see disruptions with boat cancellations and supply issues around the world, so supporting local farmers and producers makes a real difference.’

Cafe 360 is open seven days a week, welcoming customers from 8am and closing no later than 5pm.