A Cwmbran couple have expanded their business in the town centre with a move to a new location, opening seven days a week, booking live entertainment and employing more staff.
Lindsey Mason and Alun Harrison have grown Maggie’s Café and Bar from the indoor market to Monmouth Walk, near Matalan.
Lindsey said they had “jumped to probably twice the amount of staff” they had in the market and now employ 18 people.
She said they had worked for five months getting the inside of the building ready to open to customers.
She told Cwmbran Life: “The cafe is open from 8am to 5pm and serving everything, hot and cold, drinks, pies, pasties, meals, anything you want really. Then cooked dinners on a Sunday, we do a carvery style.
“That’s worked really well. That’s taken off big time During the week from Monday to Saturday, we’re going to be doing a set breakfast, so it’ll be like a six-item, ten-item, 12-item and you can pick what you want then for set price. I think that will go quite well because breakfast is one of our main sellers.”
The cafe has an alcohol licence and is open seven days a week until 11pm with live entertainment on the weekends.
She said: “The entertainment side is new to us. Every Friday we’re having a DJ playing all sorts of music each week. And then on Saturdays, I’m booking in people so we’re going to have a comedian shortly (Saturday 22 February from 8.30pm), then next month we will be having Delicious Dee [who performs at local venues and busks in Gwent Square].
“That will be every other Saturday because we’ll have a DJ every Saturday in between. And every Sunday is a quiz and a karaoke night. It all starts at about 7pm. And the Six Nations, we’re showing every game.”
She said they were looking forward to the summer when customers could make the most of the outside seating and enjoy live entertainment in the warm evenings.
The couple have a 13-year-old and two children under two at home, with Lindsey saying: “Home life plus working life is stressful but we juggle it quite well to be honest.”