Small businesses supporting each other and the taste of our coffee, just a couple of the many reasons why Tŷ Winsh, Balaclava Road, Caernarfon exclusively serves Coffi Dre. This month we sat down with Marek, the owner of the award-winning coffee shop.
Originally from Slovakia, Marek has now set his roots here in Wales. For years he worked as a Restaurant Manager for Dunelm in Bangor and across the UK. He’s a former Barista champion and in 2013, competing for only the second time he won out of 760 people! As well as being the champion, he also won a holiday to Mauritius! The following year, he was invited to judge in the competition. If you have a coffee at Tŷ Winsh, there will be more than likely an intricate piece of latte art on your drink. Latte Art is something else that Marek excels at.
A few years ago, the opportunity to fulfil a dream of owning his own coffee shop arose when Tŷ Winsh became available. Moving to Caernarfon, a few people had warned him that he needed to speak Welsh if he was to be accepted, but Marek says ‘I absolutely love it. The people of Caernarfon are so lovely. Every day I’m learning a little bit more Welsh’.
In his own words, Marek is very picky with his coffee, but the combination of the taste and quality of our coffee, our customer service and the fact we’re a local small business means he’s very happy with the choice he made in choosing Coffi Dre. Marek says ‘the Coffi Dre guys are very quick. When I order, it’s here the next day or couple of days after, which is brilliant. Five stars to them!’.
If you eat a cake at Ty Winsh you may (or may not!) notice that there isn’t as much sugar as usual in his cakes. Marek says this is down to the fact he has Type 2 Diabetes, and therefore makes a conscious effort to serve everything a little bit healthier. As well as cake (and coffee of course!) Marek serves Paninis, Toasties, Omelettes, Welsh Rarebit, Soups and
a few Specials. All prepared fresh on site daily, even the bread. If he gets the chance, Marek combines Slovakian influences with British food (the Slovakian pancakes I had when we had this chat were immense!) as he doesn’t want to be ‘like every other coffee shop’.
Ty Winsh has won ‘The Best Café in Caernarfon’ for the second year in a row this year, awarded by Restaurant Guru – who pools together all the reviews from Google, Facebook and TripAdvsor. Huge congratulations to Marek!
