New community cafe aims to ‘increase happiness’ in Bramley

By Keef Williamson

Regular visitors to Bramley Shopping Centre may have noticed the gradual transformation
of the former B.E.S.T (Bacon Egg Sausage Tomato) café into the Bramley Community Cafe.

Bramley Elderly Action has taken over the lease on the unit and WLD spoke to their
CEO Lee Ingham.

WLD: “What is your aim with the café?”
Lee: “It’s a roundabout way, I suppose, of increasing happiness, increasing engagement
with our activities. Where we have cafés in our community centres, a lot of people won’t
use them. But they are happy to come here and we can let them know about things BEA is
doing that might interest them.”

WLD: “BEA seems to be everywhere in Bramley”
Lee: “Well we’re in our 30th year. Bramley Elderly Action was set up by local people to
support elderly people coming out of hospital and facing loneliness. In 2006 we set up a
social enterprise with the idea of making money to put back into the charity.”
BEA now operates Bramley Lawn on Rossefield Approach, Bramley Community Centre on
Waterloo Lane, the Bramley Community Shop in Bramley Shopping Centre as well as the
Community Café and OWLS on North Lane, Headingley.

WLD: “How did you finance the development of the café?”
Lee: “We borrowed some money and we’ve had some support from the local councillors,
the Inner West Area Committee, to pay for building an accessible toilet.”
Lee stressed that café is a commercial operation, paying full rent to the centre owners and
it needs to make a profit to support other activities.

WLD: “When I came here a few weeks ago the menu was a little limited – are you planning to expand it?”
Lee: “Certainly. In the first few weeks the kitchen didn’t have enough power so that limited
what we could do. Now we’ve got full three-phase electricity so we can do hot sandwiches,
cooked breakfasts and a daily special. Today we’ve got bangers and mash, yesterday it
was macaroni cheese, last week there was bubble and squeak. It’s all good, simple home-
cooked food.”

WLD: “Do you have any plans for the future?”
Lee: “We’ll be opening on Saturdays from September and be looking at afternoon opening
for tea and cakes, and maybe hiring the space out in the evenings for clubs to use.”

The café is managed by Dermot, who also does the cooking. His career includes working
for major hotel chains Hyatt and Intercontinental, followed by 10 years running a
community café in east Leeds. He likes to use fresh ingredients and makes food from
scratch where possible.

WLD: “Do you have all the staff you need?”
Dermot: “Pretty much. I’m paid and so is my assistant manager, but everything else is
volunteer-led, bringing people from the community to get experience in here and engage
with the people of the community.”

WLD: “What do you think is the role of the café?”
Dermot: “So the whole premise of this for me is, during the day, that it’s a community café.
People from all walks of life – you don’t have to be a member of Bramley Elderly Action –
can come in and have a wholesome meal, all cooked freshly, and we can rest assured that someone’s got something healthy and decent in their belly. And long term – once we get
up and running – we want it to be more than a café, we want it to be a community hub, say.
“When the food finishes this could be a meeting place for various clubs. That’s the goal.
And we’ll be looking to streamline the operation so people don’t have to wait more than
five minutes for their order. We have to compete with Greggs next-door-but-one and Costa
further up. It’s a big ask but we offer something they don’t – it’s freshly made and prepped.
The mash is made from actual potatoes peeled and cooked that day!”

At the moment the Community Café opens from 9.30am to 2pm Monday to Friday.
They will be holding an Open Day on Saturday, 27 September with a free cup of tea or coffee for anyone who attends.

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