Residents of new housing developments on the edge of Dawlish will have a local café later this month.

The Hope Café, based at the Hope Centre on Swift Road near Sainsbury’s, will serve quality, fresh, locally-sourced, healthy light bites and snacks and drinks.

‘We’ll be serving speciality teas, fresh coffees using beans from the Newton Abbot Coffee Company and chai lattes,’ said café manager Mike Atkinson. ‘Food will primarily be cakes, pastries, flapjacks as well as smashed avocado and eggs benedict for breakfast, open sandwiches for lunch and afternoon teas with cakes, scones and loose-leaf tea,’ he added.

As well as serving members of the Hope Church and residents of the houses nearby, the café hopes its fare will be tempting enough to make it a destination for foodies.

Café manager Mike Atkinson explained ‘everything will be made on-site with scones cooked fresh every day’.

After a ‘soft opening’ for church members and friends from the neighbouring Redrow estate from July 9, the café will open to the public on July 16. Opening hours will be Tuesday to Friday 8:30am-4:30pm.

‘Our soft opening week will be a training week for our volunteer staff and we’ll be taking donations rather than charging café prices while they get used to working in the café,’ explained Mike.

The Hope Centre opened in May 2022. It was built by Hope Church Dawlish and is designed to provide a fully accessible, versatile community space for residents of Dawlish and the surrounding area. It currently hosts fitness classes and is a temporary home to Kenton Primary School, which was forced to relocate due to flood damage after torrential rainfall last September.

‘The church had a vision to build a new church about ten years ago,’ Mike said. ‘Then the opportunity came up to purchase the land by the Redrow Estate for a nominal sum but we had to run it as a community centre,’ he adds.

As well as running as a café on weekdays, the premises is licensed for events and they already have a booking for a birthday party in August.