The new year is only a few days old and in Cardiff the indie food and drink casualties are already mounting up.
Latest to go are two branches of Alex Gooch's bakery chain, in Radyr and in Canton's Laundry Quarter - the latter having only opened in March last year. Stratospheric increases in energy prices are to blame, with the monthly cost rising from around £2,000 to nearer £10,000. That would have put the cafes under acute pressure in any circumstances, but the footfall was simply not enough to sustain them. Of the Laundry Quarter branch, Gooch explained that it's just too far from the centre of Canton and was not benefitting from sufficient passing trade - a warning that won't make it any easier for the site owner to find a replacement tenant.
The news comes hot on the heels of the closure of the Conway pub in Pontcanna, the demise of which has been blamed on "[t]he much publicised financial difficulties which have plagued the hospitality industry". Not so long ago, this turn of events would have been unthinkable, given the pub's popularity and location at the heart of one of Cardiff's most affluent areas - so either something has gone badly awry or the climate is even more challenging than previously feared.
Also waving "a very sad and difficult goodbye" is Kindle, the self-styled "fire food" restaurant at the entrance to Bute Park. Kindle's loss may not be widely mourned - reports I've received of its fare have been mixed, and it was always a gamble to rely on what is basically an al fresco dining set-up in Wales. But the demise of any independent - especially when the grounds cited are strains on the industry as a whole - should give serious cause for concern.
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