Tag: Cafe

As our brand new busway brunch stop welcomes its first customers this week, Amanda Borrill has been checking out what we can all expect to find inside.

In the space of less than a fortnight, two new independent brunch venues have opened their doors here in Histon & Impington. The latest of these arrivals, Histon Station House Café, is the venture of local man David Harrison and its opening on Wednesday this week has brought with it an added buzz of activity to the area around the Guided Busway. The lure of a refreshment stop here for cyclists and walkers alike is likely to be strong and dog walkers will be delighted to hear that well behaved dogs are welcome at the café – with water bowls readily available.

READ ALSO: Station-house-on-track-for-new-lease-of-life-this-summer

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Behind the facade

So, what exactly can we expect to find behind this attractive new facade? Owner, David Harrison, reveals: “Lots on offer! We will be serving brunch all day from 8:30am until 3:30pm with the doors closing at 4:30pm. There will be healthy brunch dishes on Fitzbillies’ sourdough & English muffins, sweet treats including waffles and cakes, Hot Numbers coffee, milkshakes and smoothies. It will be table service throughout with a take-away option also available.

“Our menus can be found on Instagram or Facebook and a website is currently under construction – just awaiting a few photos before launching. 

“For now, I have taken the decision to open six days, with us being closed on a Tuesday. As a new business with a new team, I wanted to make sure I prioritised a good working balance and one of my team, quite rightly, pointed out that this includes me. We will review things after the first month; with an extension on the opening hours on the cards too when the time is right”.

One person who has been finding it especially hard to contain her excitement about this week’s opening is David’s five-year-old daughter Mila who, David tells me, has spent the duration of the building works playing ‘spot the difference’ as things progressed and now has David’s entire staffing problems resolved with the recruitment of her year 1 classmates!

Early experiences

Station House Café’s arrival has been equally eagerly anticipated within the community and I tracked down a couple of visitors happy to share their early experiences.

Setting a record at four visits in this opening week, is Impington resident Nick Wood. Nick went along for David’s pre-opening trial run on Monday and now seems to be single-handedly striving to ensure these doors stay open. I asked Nick how he feels about having this inviting new coffee stop just a few minutes walk from home:

“At the pre-opening trial day I ordered the ‘modern breakfast’ as opposed to the traditional one – salmon, poached eggs, avocado and some other stuff. Well presented, tasty and well priced. My brunching partner had a raspberry macaron, which she declared ‘delicious’. The coffee was also very good. The staff were very helpful and courteous and, considering it was their first day on the job, did brilliantly.

“It’s a splendid setting and it’s been so good to sit outdoors watching the world go by. My wife has told me I need to spend less money in cafés but, with quality like this, I suspect I’ll be in even more trouble than usual. A great addition to the south of the village. Expect house prices in South Impington to rise exponentially. I’ll be back!’”

Also there for the pre-opening was Impington resident John Gooch:

“I went along with three friends to the soft opening on Monday. The service, the coffee and the brunches were really tasty and not your ordinary food – great work by David and his team! We tried their bruschetta, overnight oats (to die for and so simple) and a tomato, chick pea and egg stew – which had a hint of spice and was delicious. We all loved it – now if only he could get Fitzbillies Chelsea buns there…”

Across the community

Amid the excitement of recent new arrivals, this weekend sees long time resident, The Geographer, closing its doors after eight years here in our village with their business taking a change in direction and heading online. COVID and its restrictions has certainly challenged the hospitality industry right across the UK and here in Histon & Impington we have seen our village venues, including Vision Park’s d:licious and Histon Smokehouse, forced to continually evolve and adapt to survive over the last sixteen months.

Newcomer Stir CB24 is continuing to attract new regulars and has now submitted its application for the creation of an external drinking/dining area behind its School Hill unit. You can view the application and submit your thoughts, here.