Reply With QuoteNever had breakfast there but when I was working in Treorchy (over 50 years ago) I used to have my lunch there daily.
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Treorchy Italian cafe to close after 84 years https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48390009
Never had breakfast there but when I was working in Treorchy (over 50 years ago) I used to have my lunch there daily.
So did I (!) 1964-65, when I started my first job in Treorchy. Sad to see traditions dying out.
Was there much of a mod scene up the valleys?
Have often looked at it from the outside thinking that's a place I should visit since I moved up here, but never got around to doing so - I suppose that sort of thinking is the difference between then and now as far as the Station Cafe is concerned. Also, the number of chips shops and takeaways nearby has probably not helped their cause.
My father closed his Italian Cafe 25 years agoOriginally Posted by William Treseder
I can always remember how busy it was in the 70s, how it started dying in the 80s after the strike and the pit closures, and they gave up in the 90s.
People wanted curry and I can always remember how loath my father was of the stuff and introducing health and safety to fellas who left school at 14 made them want to finish a lot quicker
None of the 3rd generation were interested in doing the same thing - too much like hard work
A while ago a dickhead asked me if I would be interested in joining the BNP - when I told him I was 3rd generation immigrant he said yeah but you're from the good lot of immigrants - I guess he'd forgotten about Mussolini.
Working in Pontlottyn in the 70s, we went to a cafe for a bite to eat at dinner time. Door was locked and the woman inside ‘mouthed’ to us. ‘We’re closed for dinner love’ 😱
Hey Binman, I have fond memories of visiting there on a Saturday morning with my mother in the late 70s/early 80s, it was her favourite one in town.
Sad times , all we will have in the end are chains.
It's a pity folk like the Balestrazzi,'s can't be remembered for adding something to people's lives over their 84 years of existence .
Walked past there about three months ago as it's very close to its choo-choo station. Had I known its background and old-fashioned interior I'd have popped in. Interesting that he's 78 and his parents moved there from Italy in 1935. Wonder if they were interned and whether he was born in the Isle of Man as that's where most German and Italian nationals living in the UK were forced to relocate to during the World War2 years.
Many of them including my grandfather were smart enough to get themselves GB passports so fortunately were not shipped out to Canada
Unfortunately there were many that didn't and a few of my grandfathers relatives and friends are buried in Bardi after the German U-Boat sunk the SS Arandora Starr that was sending them to interment camps and the doors weren't opened to let them escape - but that's another story. Many of these people including my grandfather fought on the side of GB in the first world war.
I recall reading or hearing on radio that a lot of the italian cafe owners were listed to be interred at the start of the second world war but there was such an outcry from people in S wales, particularly from soldiers who voiced loudly their concern there would be nowhere to get a cuppa, that the order was suspended/rescinded. although I'm sure they were still monitored.
The government spy was probably their best customer!!
That is sad news.
They, along with many of the other Italian cafés (Bachettas in Porth springs to mind) were customers of my late father (firstly with fruit machines and then later with burglar alarms) and I have many memories of going with him as a youngster to these places. He’d always get a free coffee for his troubles.
My Dad always referred to Treorchy as “the three yorkies”, as his dodgy humour and Cairdiff accent would dictate...
Great story binman. You must be so proud of your heritage.
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