Hospice set to open first café at marina
A hospice is serving up a new way to raise funds, with its first ever café set to open at a Staffordshire marina.
Café 83, run by St Giles Hospice, will open at Barton Marina in November.
The name references 1983, the year the hospice was founded. The café is part of the charity’s work to diversify its income and strengthen its financial resilience, and joins its existing commercial activities, which already include 27 charity shops on high streets across the region, from Aldridge to Ashby de la Zouch, and Bloxwich to Uttoxeter.
Café 83 will be located beside the Mooring and Boat Sales building at Barton Marina, set apart from the marina’s main run of shops and cafés and overlooking the moored canal boats rather than the busier tourist stretch.
The café will seat 40 and open seven days a week, serving breakfast and lunch at competitive prices, with an all day menu and bar snacks for the evening. The menu will include toast, teacakes, sausage and bacon sandwiches, mature cheddar sandwiches and baguettes, jacket potatoes and sausage rolls, alongside a selection of cakes, a children’s menu, and soft, alcoholic and hot drinks. Dogs are welcome, with water and treats available.
It is expected to draw boaters, walkers, dog walkers, hikers and holidaymakers passing through the marina, as well as residents of Barton and the surrounding area. The space will also be available to hire for events such as baby showers and birthdays.
Café 83 opens its doors on 5 November at 10am, with a ribbon-cutting to mark the occasion. The first 50 customers through the door that day will receive a free coffee.
Rob Evans, Associate Director of Income Generation at St Giles Hospice, said: “Café 83 is about giving something back to a place that means a lot to us, and to everyone who passes through it, whether that’s boaters, walkers or families out for the day. Every coffee and cake sold will help fund our care for local people. It also reflects our wider strategy of building diverse and profitable income streams, as demand for our care continues to grow and the need for a reliable, sustainable funding base becomes ever more important. It felt right to mark our first café with a nod to where it all began for us back in 1983.”
Elinor Eustace, Chief Executive of St Giles Hospice, added: “This is a really exciting development for St Giles, and one we hope will become a real fixture at Barton Marina. As a charity, we have to be innovative in how we raise funds to provide our care, and Café 83 is a great example of that in action. Every visit will help support the invaluable services we provide for people across Staffordshire, North Birmingham and the surrounding areas. We are all looking forward to the opening and the start of our new chapter at the marina.”
For more information, visit Cafe83.co.uk, or follow Café 83 on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.Add content heading
