Owner frustrated after her café excluded from food festival

THE OWNER of a café has been left frustrated and out of pocket, as she claims the shop was "excluded" from the Caerphilly Food Festival at the weekend.

Tracie Undery of The Deli said the shop had made cakes for their first Caerphilly Food Festival, but was frustrated to see that St. Fagans Street (where the café is located) had been blocked off on Saturday, April 27.

Explaining what happened on the day, Ms Undery, 59, said: "We saw it about 10.00 when we walked down to see why we were so quiet as a normal Saturday customers are waiting outside for us to open at 9-30am.

Tracie Undery of The Deli said they had plenty of cakes for Caerphilly Food Festival (Image: Tracie Undery)

"We spoke to one of the organisers who said they would try to move it into an angle however this did not happen. On our second visit to them we were told an event organiser would come to the shop to explain to us what was happening.

"They did not turn up until 1.30. By this time we had posted on our socials and had an amazing response from customers saying they would call in and bring friends so we filled up but had already missed the breakfast/brunch trade."

St. Fagans Street was blocked off by an ice cream truck.

An ice cream truck blocked off St. Fagans Street in Caerphilly (Image: The Deli)

The Deli shared a post on social media, expressing their frustrations at not being informed, saying "why have we not been informed prior to today that this was the plan so we could staff appropriately !!!!"

Ms Undery said if they had been warned, she would have spoken to Caerphilly County Borough Council about "shutting the street off further up past my shop so me and other retail shops could have been included in the food festival not excluded."

She added that if that wasn't possible, The Deli would have "placed signs out on Cardiff road saying we are still open for business or scaled down our staff and stock to keep costs down."

Ms Undery said The Deli usually has customers waiting outside for them to open on a normal Saturday, which was not the case at the weekend. (Image: Tracie Undery)

The Deli was previously located on Clive Street for 10 years before moving to St. Fagans Street in September 2023.

A Caerphilly County Borough Council spokesman said: “Thousands of people flocked to Caerphilly town centre on Saturday to enjoy the delicious selection of treats on offer at this popular annual food festival.

"Major events like this provide a huge boost to the local economy and help put our town centres on the map.”

“Events of this scale also present significant logistical challenges, including the need to implement road closures to keep everyone safe.

"Members of the council’s events team visited The Deli on Saturday to discuss the owner’s concerns and the feedback obtained will help shape the way we manage these types of events in future.”