Dream come true for Cari as ‘cosy’ community café set to open in Brae
“I ALWAYS wanted to have a coffee shop.”
Cari Shen is beaming as her lifelong dream moves closer to reality, with Cari’s Café in Brae set to begin welcoming locals through the door later this month.
A long time in the making, the café features in the same building as the newly revamped Brae Youth and Community Centre and the soon-to-be open rural energy hub.
And after hugely popular pre-opening trial days last week, Cari is now eager to offer freshly baked sweet treats and homemade light lunches to her new customers.
Showing Shetland News around on Monday, the word Cari used repeatedly to describe the space was “cosy”.
“It’s going to be a community hub type café,” she said.
“We didn’t want to make it too crowded, we wanted people to be able to have privacy and space to speak.
“I have a very good feeling that the café will work because it’s for the community.”
Cari’s Café is set to open on Wednesday 21 October, with the community centre and rural energy hub also both to throw open their doors after a lengthy period of renovation.
Offering light lunches such as soup, bannocks and paninis, the café will be open from 11am to 3pm from Wednesday to Saturday.
The café will be run by Cari herself, so visitors will be encouraged to “help themselves to help” her – with milk and sugar left out to top up teas and coffees.
“I’m only offering limited options because it’s just me myself,” Cari explained.
“We’ll have the same soup and the same type of cake for the whole week, but it will be fresh that day.
“And we’ll have different sweets, things like chocolate chip cookies and almond cakes.”
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Shetland News had the chance to sample one of Cari’s homebakes, and can guarantee that they are worth the visit.
For Cari, the café completes a full circle moment for her – with the initial conversation about it coming in the very space she’s set to occupy in the Brae youth centre.
“Two years ago I was at the Living Well Hub here, we were talking and I said, ‘I always wanted to have a coffee shop’,” she explained.
Someone at the meeting knew about the forthcoming rural energy hub plans – with a café at the heart – and suggested that she go for it.
“Eventually, we’ve got to here,” Cari added.
The youth centre board and energy hub have been more than willing guinea pigs for Cari’s creations, with several test events leading up to last week’s pre-opening days.
“I would not have been able to do that pre-opening without them,” Cari said.
“I’ve still not got the information about what will be a busy day, what will be a busy time. It’s going to be three to six months before I know when people will come in.
“It will be a learning curve.”
She said she was glad to open during the quieter winter months, with the hope that locals make it a repeat spot for tea, coffee and cakes during the colder days.
“I want it to be a social hub so people come here for tea and coffee, just come here to see a person or for a quiet moment,” Cari said.
All going well, Cari said she would like to get a helper somewhere in the future.
Firstly her focus though is on making sure that the opening goes well, and she said she was excited that people in Brae would finally have a dedicated café that they could go to.
For her, “the café is the perfect opportunity and the time is right.”
Rural energy hub senior engagement and development officer Jade Wilson said that the café “fits in nicely with what we’re trying to do”.
And the hope is that families popping in to the café or youth centre may stop along for energy advice – or after a meeting about heating may go for a slice of cake.
Cari thanked Jade, Brae Youth and Community Centre committee member Dawn Spall and her husband for their support, and her former UHI Shetland lecturer Raymond Smith for all of his advice.
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