Devizes cafe celebrates milestone after 'biggest challenge'

Cosy Cafe opened on Snuff Street in Devizes last June and is preparing to celebrate its first anniversary.

The venue is run by Mandi Mann and her parents Barb and Ray, who have lived in Devizes since 2007 and previously operated a cafe in Hungerford.

One of the main problems they had to overcome was the fallout of the kebab house fire on Northgate Street.

The road remains shut to traffic heading into the Market Place until a solution is found for the damaged building.

Mandi told this paper the cafe’s loyal support helped them overcome a drop in people visiting the town during this partial closure.

Mandi, Barb, and Ray (Image: Mandi Mann) She said: “The fire had a massive impact on trading in the town, it’s so quiet now and that has been a slight struggle but the support we get from our regulars is outstanding.

“They are always there and without them we would have found it a lot more difficult to still be here.

“It’s so good to get that support, we also sponsor Fantasy Radio who advertise us on their breakfast show which I hope has an impact.”

Mandi believes Cosy Cafe has so many regular customers because of the “personal” service it offers that bigger chains don’t.

She added: “I think it’s the fact we are so friendly, we interact with customers and for a lot of them it might be the only chat they get all day.

“That’s not for everyone, some people like to go in eat and leave, but our customers want a chat and a smiley face.

“Because we’re a small family business it’s always the same faces and we do table service which is rare, you get to know people and what they order which is nice, it becomes personal.”

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Like many traders, Mandi hopes a solution can be found soon that will allow the full reopening of Northgate Street.

She said: “I have customers coming in who are from Melksham or wherever and they tell me they don’t bother visiting Devizes anymore because of the traffic.

“It’s sad because I think it will go downhill if they don’t do something about it soon… if people don’t use us, they’re going to lose us

“It has reduced our customers and has been our biggest challenge, we were doing so well and the week it happened our takings dropped by about half and that hasn’t gone back up.”