Coffee, cake from a Penarth kitchen, soup and toasties at lunch, and tables you can read at for as long as you like
The café
Eight tables at the back of the shop and two in the window: a flat white at £3.20, cakes from a Penarth baker, soup and a toastie at lunch, loose-leaf tea, and a rule that you can sit with a book you have not bought yet and nobody will hurry you. Open nine to five, Sunday ten to half past three.
The café is why some people come, and the books are why they stay, or the other way round; we have stopped minding which. Ten tables, a proper machine, beans from a Cardiff roaster, cakes from a baker on Plymouth Road who delivers at eight, and a lunch of soup and toasties that changes with the week. You may read at a table for as long as you like.
The counter does espresso drinks, filter, hot chocolate the children approve of, loose-leaf teas and, in summer, a cold brew. Cakes change daily and there are always two that are gluten-free and one vegan; the lemon drizzle has a following. Lunch from noon to half past two is a soup with bread from the bakery two doors down, three toasties, and a quiche on Fridays. Children get a babyccino for nothing and a biscuit for a smile.
The tables are for reading, working, meeting, and the book clubs on their evenings. We do not have wifi because people asked us not to, and we do not have a time limit because we have never needed one. Dogs are welcome in the café and on the ground floor; the upstairs is carpet and books and we ask them to wait.
What is included
- Ten tables; sit as long as you like with any book
- Espresso, filter, loose-leaf tea, hot chocolate
- Cakes from a Penarth baker, two gluten-free daily
- Soup, toasties and a Friday quiche at lunch
- Dogs on the ground floor; a bowl by the door
- No wifi, by popular request
What it costs
Flat white £3.20, filter £2.60, tea £2.40, cake £3.80 a slice, soup and bread £5.50, toasties £6.50. The full menu is on the café page. The staff picks shelf says what we are reading this month; the order page gets you any book in print by the next working day.
Questions about café
Can I work from the café?
Yes, on a laptop or a notebook, for as long as you like. No wifi, which is either the problem or the point.
Do you do takeaway?
Yes, in a cup you bring or a compostable one, and cake in a paper bag. The toasties travel badly and we say so.
Any book in print, by tomorrow. Tell us the title.
Title, author or ISBN on the order page, at the counter, by phone or by email: we order it this afternoon, text you when it is in and hold it a fortnight. Nothing to pay until you collect; posted anywhere in Britain for £2.95, free over £25.