“IT’S personal for us.”
That’s how the owners describe their new venture as beach food business Cafe Môr takes over a pub of institutional status in Angle Bay.
Food lovers were shocked when the café announced it was moving from its home of over ten years at Freshwater West.
But all the hard work of relocating seems to have paid off with the café announcing the opening of the refurbished Old Point House.
This isn’t just a story of a business expanding, however, as the Point has meaning to the owners of Cafe Môr.
It’s said tears flowed when the pub closed at the start of 2020 after it failed to work out with the previous owners.
Located almost at the tip of Angle Bay, the Old Point House was the hub of the seaside community.
It was the place to be in summer, and a vital meeting place for people to catch up through the long winter months.
General manager of Cafe Môr and the newly refurbished Point House, Jonathan Williams, said that for people local to the area the Point was a part of their childhood and teenage years.
“We grew up spending a lot of time at the Point House,” said Jonathan.
“My main point of opening Cafe Môr was to catch some of the lobster and crab that was going abroad, and do it here, and show locals what we can do.
“We want to create these moments of magic again.”
There comes a more fundamental discussion when we talk further.
The Old Point is a lovely property located in a world-class location – a couple of acres of land right on the bay overlooking the water and the irregular, but somewhat becoming Valero oil refinery in the distance.
From a business angle the area is screaming out for a block of holiday homes.
Owner of the building, John Allen-Mirehouse, says it would have been a travesty if the pub had been turned into ‘posh’ holiday lets.
“This place could have been turned into some sort of posh estate and lost to the community,” said John, “but I think it is fantastic to keep it as a public house.”
Jonathan added that it should be accessible to everyone.
“It's for the community,” says Johnathan. “From a business sense it is a crazy idea trying to do this because of the money we have had to invest to make the pub ready.”
Cafe Môr has been given a ten-year lease on the premises, installing a bar, a restaurant and a new kitchen.
What we have here with Jonathan and Joanna is aspiration, ideas and initiative, and not to be afraid to try something different.
The company has brought in head chef Charlie Cowgill-Pang, 30, who moved across from Cheltenham and who says the idea behind the restaurant will be ‘awesomeness on a plate’.
Property owner John says there’s a long-term project to this, not just for Angle, but hopefully to inspire the whole county.
“What this is about is establishing a Pembrokeshire venue that sells Pembrokeshire produce for Pembrokeshire people,” says John.
"And what we have here with Johnathan and Joanna (Levell, Cafe Môr manager) is aspiration, ideas and initiative, and not to be afraid to try something different.”
Cafe Môr and the bar at the Old Point House is scheduled to be open now.
The Old Point House restaurant is set to open in the middle of June.
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