A cafe in Cardiff city centre has announced it is to close after serving customers for nearly 30 years. Le Rendez-Vous coffee shop in Queens Arcade shopping centre closed its doors for the final time on Christmas Eve.
The independent coffee shop was set up by husband and wife Paul and Jo Bainton in 1995 and soon became a popular spot for shoppers and workers alike thanks to their selection of piping hot coffees and freshly baked baguettes. At one point, it seated over 200 people, with seating inside and outside the shopping centre on Working Street.
However, after 27 years, Paul and Jo have made the very difficult decision to close the business, having been impacted by a multitude of factors, including the cost of living crisis, the pandemic and a lack of footfall in the shopping centre. Get the latest Cardiff news sent straight to your inbox for free by signing up to our newsletter.
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"It's been emotional, to be honest," said Jo following the coffee shop's closure. "We've had a few customers coming in crying, with one or two saying that the long term members of staff that we have are the only people they speak to all day.
"One woman who pops in every day came in the other week and said she couldn’t have survived losing her husband had she not had Rendez-Vous to come into to speak to the girls. So there have been quite a few tearful stories in our final week."
After relocating from a kiosk outside the shopping arcade to a large unit inside, the husband and wife team, backed by loyal staff, have helped navigate the business through turbulent times, not least the devastating impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry. But they admit they have been largely undone by the current state of Queen's Arcade, which has been left looking increasingly bare while the connecting St David's shopping centre has thrived.
"We always wanted to come back after COVID, which we managed to do," added Jo. But since they built John Lewis, and everything moved towards there, Queen’s Arcade has more or less been killed.
"There’s nothing there, nothing to draw people in and so many shops are boarded up, hoping to be redeveloped some day. They’re not even trying to push the centre forward or bring it up to date. Shaw’s has also gone recently and, apart from them, us and a tiny kitchen company, there’s nothing else here in the arcade to draw people in, other than on the upper levels. It’s such a shame."
"We were lucky that we had the outside area where we could put the tables and chairs out, but even with that, there were some days where it got to two o’clock and we could have just shut the doors then," she added. "We’ve also been really affected by the fall in the number of office workers in the town since the pandemic, that was another nail in the coffin really."
With costs soaring, Jo admits that the business could not keep going anymore, with the shutters coming down on Le Roundez-Vous for the last time on Christmas Eve.
"It’s gotten harder and harder as the years have gone by, and it’s been difficult recently with electricity and the cost of living going up. We couldn’t keep putting prices up to keep pace with costs and staff wages," she said. "Paul didn’t want to retire, but we just decided we were at a stage where we just couldn’t keep going."
As the pair reflect on the last 27 years, as well as pondering a new future, Jo knows she and Paul could not have done it alone.
"Over the years, we have had lots of loyal customers that have come back to us day in and day out, so many that I got to know and become friends with," she said. "We are both so grateful to our loyal staff too. In this industry, staff are so hard to keep, but we have had five women there who have been loyal to us for years and years and years.
"I want to say a very very big thank you to all our loyal customers and staff that have kept us going for all these years. My husband has done marvellously well to keep the business going as long as he has and through all the challenges. So we have had a really good run, but all good things come to an end."
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