THE Allotment Café in Mossley which survived successive lockdowns has decided to close after nearly five years.
The café – which was previously The Flying Teapot café – opened back in 2019 following a five-month refurbishment.
The popular establishment off Manchester Road, near Woodend Mill, was a real haven for people to get takeaway refreshments once coronavirus restrictions started to ease in 2021.
But owners Rory Callaghan and Chelsey Knight have announced their intention to move on, with the café set to close for good on Sunday, August 27.
Addressing the community in a heartfelt Facebook post, Chelsey said: “Our time has come to say goodbye to you all. Rory and I have worked on this business for five years and our time has come to move on.
“We would like to thank absolutely every single one of you who has visited over the years and helped keep us going.
“Our regulars (you know who you are!) are genuinely the reason we kept going as long as we have, we wouldn’t be here without you.
“We’ve met incredible people and made amazing friends along the way. I hope in return you’ve found our café a place for comfort, good food and friendly chats.
“Our final day will be Sunday, August 27 – we hope we get to see you all before we go! Thank you all for everything.
“Ourselves, team and vision of this business are moving on but keep your eyes out for any updates for what the future holds for this place.”
Underneath the social media post, customers were quick to express their sadness about the forthcoming closure and wish Rory and Chelsey all the best for the future.
I am not sure where the research for the article about the closure of the Allotment Cafe originated, however you could not be more wrong.
The Allotment Cafe IS NOT CLOSING, Rory and Chelsey never owned the cafe, they simply managed it and it will continue under the existing ownership after they leave. To publish such an article without doing your research is lazy and poor journalism, not to mention the damage it will do the business. People who read this will think it is closing and look for other places to meet and have a lovely lunch etc. resulting the business being forced to close due to lack of customers.
Perhaps you could contact the owner (not the manger) and get some details of what The Allotment Cafe will be doing after the departure of the current managers. That may go some way to repairing the damage this post has caused.
Looking at the cafe’s social media pages, the only conclusion anyone could come to would be that the cafe was closing…
“ourselves, team & vision of this business are moving on but keep your eyes out for any updates for what the future holds for this place”
“It’s our very last week of service”
“We’ll be slowly depleting our stock so some items and dishes may run out before Sunday ”
If the place is continuing to trade, why has no-one else taken over the social media accounts or even commented on them with their own accounts to clarify this when people have asked “is anyone else taking over?”, etc. If it was continuing to trade, why would they be depleting stock? That doesn’t make sense.