THERE seems to be a bit of confusion about how The Market Café sits within the market.

A lot of people seem to think that we provide those tables and chairs so that people have somewhere to eat the street food they have purchased from, Niang’s Thai, Funky Falafel, Raclette Raclette, Girish’ stall and the Hinton Marsh Farm barbecue, in other words, the stalls selling hot food at the market.

Some people even come along with their Costa coffees and food from the Five Valleys indoor market and from McDonald’s!

The market café was first established in 2000 and has always been run as a business venture.

In other words, the people running the café are not market volunteers, they are serving hot and cold drinks and a selection of sweet and savoury snacks to earn a living; just like every other stall at the market.

The café is currently run by Studio Pastry and Daisy’s Farm, the two of them alternating from one week to the next.

Both of these proprietors find it really difficult when a whole group takes over one of the tables to eat there non café food and don’t even buy a drink, thus losing them a whole table to serve their own customers on!

It’s funny because no one would do that at any other café.

To my mind, street food is exactly that, food bought and eaten “on the street”, that’s why it is significantly cheaper than eating at a café or restaurant.