I am pleased to announce that things are now well in hand for our 4th Reach Out for Nepal Day with another wide variety of Events taking place in or around the Cafe, something for everyone. But rather than cover them specifically in this update I’ll list them on the Events page but please note that the list is likely to become extended in the coming weeks so click into the Events page periodically to get the most up to date information. I met up with Doug Scott OBE a week or so ago & he and Anne were most

Easter has come & gone & from a Cafe point of view went well but it ended for us in tragedy as we returned home on Bank Holiday Monday to discover our beloved cat, Pemba, had been hit by a car. A magnificently strong cat had somehow made it home to say goodbye but his internal injuries were un-survivable & I buried him under beautiful blue skies on Thursday morning, Dorina & I were devastated & lost. Seeing & feeling our grief Gaby decided to hold the fort & dispatched us on a busy Sunday so that I could run

With an early Easter fast approaching it’s time to make your plans so if you are in Snowdonia over the Easter period here’s whats happening at the Cafe to help you decide what to take advantage of:- Saturday 31st March – Open MIC Night, with extended Drinks license until 11:00 pm – See Events page for more details. Easter Sunday 1st April – Extended evening opening to 20:00 with last hot food orders at 7:30 pm. Friday 6th April – Rachel Bolton & Rob Johnson of Filmuphigh present ‘playing on the Pinn’ followed by Music & Poems with last hot

Having not blogged for a while I can only blame an awful lot of running around (mostly in cars) interspersed with a great first trip to the Pyrenees which saw my off-piste skiing go from extremely poor to extremely poor but my piste skiing move from extremely moderate to moderate. For this ‘improvement’ I have my ski instructor, aka Judy, to thank for her ‘friendly’ shout ‘Paul, you need to plant your poles at each turn’, was there a hint of frustration in her, certainly looked like it but what do I know about women? That brings me on to

We were delighted to host Eryri Harriers Presentation Night on Saturday so congratulations to all those who won awards (Paul’s still trying to figure out how he got a medal too?) & especially to Bronwin Jenkinson who had such a spectacular year with surely many more to come. Hot on it’s heals are two more Events at the Cafe to make a note for your diaries:- First up on Saturday 17th March we host the Snowdonia Society’s Quiz Night, no booking needed but might be prudent to reserve a table in advance. Friday 6th April sees friends of ours (Rachel

This Saturday evening sees us hosting the Eryri Harriers Presentation Evening which we are delighted to do. As such the Cafe will be closing earlier than normal at 6:00 pm with last Hot Food orders at 5:30pm, hopefully that will still give you plenty of time to re-fuel after a day enjoying the snowy mountains & trails. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

It was on the cards but as ever when you learn of the loss of a friend that doesn’t make it any easier to accept. I am not in the habit of putting pen to paper in my blogs when someone close to us passes away, yes I briefly posted about the loss of Ian already the best part of 4 years ago but have restricted it to that, however in Bob Postings case I am going to make an exception. This is partly due to the way that Bob thrust himself upon our cafe in our early days &

We are pleased to announce that this Sunday saw the completion of the installation of the Defibrillator outside our Cafe so a big thank you once again to everyone who donated to the cause & to Tomos Hughes who completed the installation & has guided us throughout the campaign. The Defib. is located immediately outside our main entrance doors & will be accessible to all but please note the important date of Friday 9th March when (between approximately 15:00 & 19:00) Tomos will be helping to provide free training to members of our staff as well as anyone else who

Have you noticed the changes to our Weekend Specials? Gaby has teamed up with the excellent & renowned Mermaid Fishmongers of Llandudno to allow us to offer a wide variety of Fish options every weekend. With their expert guidance we hope to provide you with a wide variety of Fishy options throughout the year some of these will be based on their recommendations of what’s in season, so if like me & you love fish there is everything to look forward to as 2018 progresses. These changes have already begun with Dover Sole, Cod, Haddock, Salmon & Scampi already making

Just a reminder that Bandabacana are playing at the Cafe this Saturday so come along & keep warm by dancing the night away to their Sweet Grooves & Hypnotic Harmonies, free entry, for full details see our Events page, hope to see you!

Monday morning found me in a very gloomy mood, the day before I had been subjected to a vicious verbal attack from a woman who chose to react badly to my request to keep her dog under control. I won’t go into details but it left me traumatised, her later attempts to falsify the events on facebook & no doubt in the days ahead on tripadvisor are of no surprise but even my logic cannot fully help me to realise the futility of being hurt by such abominable behaviour. As Monday afternoon wore on & my morale still side-swiped by

Well at least it is if you are visiting the cafe today. At midday yesterday our phone lines went down & this disabled our card machine. We have been onto BT repeatedly to get it fixed but it doesn’t look like a solution will be in place until sometime on Friday 19th January presumably they are a little busy after last night’s storm. Just to be on the safe side you might like to pack some cash if you are planning to visit us this weekend, sorry for any inconvenience caused but Mother Nature reminds us that she can be in

Our thanks to Alex Kendal, creator & author of this new route & Cicerone guide, who gave an excellent & informative presentation about the route & it’s creation at the cafe on Saturday night. Ticket sales raised £272.00 & will be split equally towards the BMC’s campaign to improve a notorious footpath on Cader Idris & our own campaign for a Defibrillator to be housed outside the Cafe, so thanks too to all those who attended. Alex went down well selling 19 copies of the guide book on the night but then called in again on Sunday & signed a

I am delighted to announce that our campaign in association with Achub Y Dyffren & Cardiac Charity SADS UK to purchase & install a Defibrillator outside our Cafe has got of to a flying start with the total donated so far, after just 5 weeks, already reaching £377.00. A big thank you to all who have donated so far. This will receive a further boost later today when half of the ticket sales to Alex Kendall’s talk about his Walking the Snowdonia Way Cicerone Guide book gets underway at the cafe at 8:00 pm. There are still tickets available, seE

Final reminder that this coming Saturday sees us welcome back Mike Lees to host his charity Quiz Night to raise funds for our local Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation. Further details are on our Events page, it’s a great way to get into the festive spirit so we hope you can come along & enjoy the fun. The fun doesn’t end there this weekend as Sunday morning sees Eryri Harriers Fun run around Padarn Lake with fancy dress encouraged but not obligatory, better still you don’t have to be a club member to run. For more details visit Eryri Harriers

Just a word of thanks to all who voted for us in this year’s awards, much appreciated. Also congratulations to Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation/ Llaberis Mountain Rescue Teams for being Highly Commended in the ‘Extra Mile’ category as well as to our friends at our local Cotswold Oudoor store in Betws for being part of the reason for Cotswold Outdoor winning the Chain Retailer award, well done to you all.

With our December Christmas Specials now available it’s time to confirm our Opening Hours over the Festive Period, so here goes:- Christmas Eve: 09:00 to 16:00 Christmas Day: Closed Boxing Day : 10:00 to 17:00 Saturday 30th Dec: 07:30 to 11:00 (Open MIC Night) New Years Eve: 09:00 to 16:00 New Years Day: 10:00 to 17:00 All other days we will be open as our usual hours, hope to see you at some point for one of Dorina’s homemade Mince Pies or something more.

Running has taken a bit of a back seat in the last week but hopefully a number of chores will be out the way by Monday so that I can step it up again. That said I did manage to get to Bangor to help support our (Eryri Harriers) local Cross Country (XC) race. First of all well done to Becki Law for great organisation & of course to the whole team of people who helped her. The weather was cold & underfoot conditions wet & very muddy, is it just me or do the ladies like pre-ploughing the course

Firstly a quick pointer to or Events page which I have recently updated to include several new Events at the Cafe, we hope you can make our Mike Lees Quiz Night in aid of OVMRO. Unusually for the Christmas period we will be holding our Monthly Open MIC Night on 30th December so help give you more than one night to celebrate in Capel leading into the New Year. Into the New Year itself we are excited to be hosting Alex Kendell’s presentation covering his recent book ‘The Snowdonia Way’ on January 6th. Next up is the welcoming back of

Before I bore you & you stop reading a couple of points for the diary. Firstly this Saturday sees Eryri Harriers host the latest round of the North Wales Cross Country (XC) at Bangor. As I write this I am sure that Becki Law is marshalling her troops be they runners, cake bakers, helpers & supporters, if you want to turn up & cheer us on as we plough our way around a muddy track (yesterday’s rain will have now made this doubly inevitable) simply go to the Eryri Harriers web-site for more details. It’ll be only my 2nd XC