CUSTOMERS at a Newcastle cafe got a side of scary with their eggs on Sunday after the discovery of a 1.5 metre eastern brown snake coiled up in a pot plant.
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The owner of Lexies on the Beach at Stockton, Nick Sovechles, thought the snake, hidden among plants in an entryway planter box, was a toy.
“I leaned down to have a close look and it looked like a toy snake someone had put in there as a joke and as I slowly started to reach in, its head moved,” he said.
The 1.5 metre snake was quite the talking point for diners, manager Vinny Sovechles said.
“A lot of the customers actually really enjoyed it, the kids really liked it,” he said.
Vinny Sovechles said the area was immediately closed off, with staff keeping a close watch on the snake until help arrived.
“We had a good morning for breakfast and then lunch died off, nearly literally,” he joked.
“We called the snake wrangler and he looked like Steve Irwin.”
The Sovechles have owned the business for six months and this was their first snake encounter.
“That’s the first one for us,” Vinny Sovechles said. “I know there’s been the odd brown snake sighting around Stockton.”
Vinny Sovechles grew up in Stockton and said he had only encountered snakes a couple of times.
He said the cafe was investigating some snake repellent for the future, but the customers were never in danger, rather they were treated to a bit of a reptile show.
