A café owner who put life in Congleton’s night-time economy behind him to start a “day job” has been surprised by how busy the opening weeks have been.
Chris Carsons has placed his family at the centre of his latest business venture. Not only is the name of his High Street café Sienna’s, after his daughter, but son Samuel has already followed his father’s footsteps into the hospitality industry.
The home-schooled 14-year-old is playing a central role at front of house in the café as he learns the trade.
Also joining them at Sienna’s is Mr Carson’s wife Charlotte, who is baking the cakes, while the café’s namesake will help with pot washing at weekends.
In May the “Chronicle” reported how Mr Carsons, who has established a number of successful venues, including DV8 and Rumba, two of Congleton’s established night-time venues, had bought Gather – the café’s previous name – just weeks following its closure.
Mr Carsons had said that having spent so many years in night-time hospitality he was at a time when he wanted his life back, which is why he jumped at the chance of running a daytime venture.
But having turned his back on running busy bars into the early hours, he did not bargain on how frantic running a café would be.
“It’s become this really busy operation and we are doing double the trade we thought we would prior to opening,” said Mr Carsons as he, Samuel and their colleague Oliver Dodwell served coffees and teas first thing one Thursday morning.
“In the first five days we went through 1,000 eggs and on the first Saturday had to close the kitchen early as we ran out of food.”
Mr Carsons added: “The people of Congleton have taken to Sienna’s straight away. It’s been so busy we have to take on four more staff.”
Having spent so many years in night-time hospitality he said: “It’s nice to be back during the day, going home at 5.30pm makes a nice change. I was doing this sort of thing when I was 16 and starting out in hospitality when I worked at the Mottram Hall Hotel. I love serving and meeting the customers.”
He said of working with Samuel: “He’s brilliant, he’s a different person. Sam’s thriving and he’s embracing his home schooling. While working at Sienna’s he’s also learning social skills and life skills. He’s doing maths on a daily basis, learning about profit and loss as well as forecasting.”
