A professional parkour athlete and a successful businesswoman are the faces behind a swish new café in a renovated former cinema. The Plaza, in Talbot Road in Port Talbot town centre, is gearing up to formally open to the public next month after years of refurbishment works.
The Grade II-listed art-deco building started life as a cinema back in 1940 and was a popular family-friendly destination for years until its shock closure in 1999. Unfortunately the striking building soon became a shell of its former self and was left damaged, dilapidated, and abandoned. But after huge investment from the YMCA locally and the hard work of numerous staff members and members of the community the venue is set to open soon as a community hub full of facilities.
It will comprise a business hub, office space, the Sir Anthony Hopkins Theatre, a gym, café, multi-purpose rooms, a digital recording studio, and a stylish and inviting café. The aptly-named Caffi Plaza opened last week and is already becoming a hotspot for people looking for a relaxing place for a coffee or bite to eat with friends and family in the town centre.
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The café is owned by husband and wife team Andrew and Emily Cronin who currently live in Bridgend but plan on moving closer to Port Talbot with their children, aged two and five, soon. The pair have plenty of hospitality experience between them – but their road to taking on the large café was an unexpected one.
“I’m actually a professional parkour athlete,” a bemused Andrew said. “My wife and I previously ran a 5,000-square-foot multisport facility in Rhonda Cynon Taf. We ran sessions and managed the venue, and its large café, for five years – it was the dream – but then the lease ran out and we weren’t able to come to an agreement with the landlord.
“We were looking for something else and we’d been speaking with [new Plaza operators] the YMCA – I remember actually delivering parkour classes there when I was 18 – and the café became available and so we bid for it,” Andrew said. “We won the bid and took the café on and we’ve now opened it. It’s really community-orientated – we’ll be having cooking evenings, theme nights, and pop-up chef evenings with a different chef visiting and cooking and showing people how to cook. We want the café to be more than just a café.”
Prior to taking on the café, and alongside running the sports facility with Andrew, Emily also managed a popular bell tent business, hiring the pretty tents out for festivals and special events. She and Andrew are excited to now be working together at the café, which they hope to develop into a “hub” for the local community.
“We’re serving great local food and coffee. The emphasis is on healthy, wellbeing-focused food. It’s quality food and we source our products locally as much as possible,” Andrew said. “My wife is coeliac so we’ll be having a lot of coeliac-friendly choices as well.” Currently the café is open from 9am to 2pm each day and serves drinks, cakes, and a small food menu but from March the café will be open from 8am to 3pm each day and will serve a larger food menu including pancakes, jacket potatoes, and avocado on toast.
There’s plenty of space in the café – but one particular area has become extremely popular already thanks to its unexpected seating arrangements. Eight chairs are relics of the Plaza’s former cinema – and Andrew said people have been enjoying sitting in them and telling stories of years gone by. “It’s absolutely amazing to be in the Plaza. We’re hearing lots of stories of how people met in the old café and people have started to use the venue – it’s becoming a hub,” he said. “We have some of the old seats from the old cinema – it’s a little memory for people.”
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