To think that tea rooms close too early

[CoolForCats09]

This probably sounds like a totally pointless thread but this kind of annoys me - why do most tea rooms close at 4?
I get that places might open early so close early but I'd love to find more places that are open until 5 at least. I think ideal tea and cake time is about 4ish but there's never anywhere open by then, unless it's Costa.

Has anyone else ever thought the same?

I'm always caught out by shop closing times in small towns too.

Went to Bridport a week ago and at 4pm all the cafes were clearing up, but more surprisingly most of the shops closed too.

This was on a Saturday when there must be more people around to buy things. I'm sure there's a reason, but wonder if it's historical and some towns do what they've always done. Would love to know why this happens.

Probably best not to add this to a thread about cafes. You need to start your own thread.

Because in order to open at 9, you need staff in from 8 to get the ovens on and pastries baked (assuming they’re from the freezer not completely fresh).

You then need another hour minimum at the other end of the day to clear through.

The ovens and hot press need a long time to cool down before they can be safely cleaned off, so hot food needs to be stopped earlier than tea and cakes and sandwiches.

And the staff (mainly women with school ages children) need to leave before after school clubs and nurseries close for the day.

if you have 9-4 opening hours you can staff it with people working 8-5 or thereabouts with maybe a part timer coming in for the 11-2 rush. If you need longer hours then you end up not only needing more staff (which may also take you from being a small business with fewer than 5 employees to a bigger one which certainly used to have additional costs) , you also have to spend more time making rotas covering sickness sorting payroll and all that stuff. The person closing isn’t the same person as the person opening the next day so may not leave things the way the opener likes them left…

And opening later to stay open later means missing the morning rush from parents who have dropped children at school and want a nice coffee on the way home. As well as losing the staff who need to be home themselves to sort their evenings.

agree though as a customer I’d love to be able to just go out for coffee and cakes in the evening!

A great question and I have been struck by this so many times!

Wasn't the original afternoon tea (Duchess of Bedford?) served around 4-5pm?
All the UK ea-rooms are clearing or closed up by then. Even if they feature afternoon tea on the menu, it's really only an option up to mid-afternoon, leaving no time to linger and enjoy it.

Sometimes I wonder if it's due to more places also serving breakfast. Are all the staff exhausted from the earlier start and ready to close by 3pm? Any lovely cafe owners here to give a view?

Costa is often cheaper than our local options. My DD is gluten free, so their nutritional labelling is far easier too. But that said I would love a local coffee shop that opens later, it would be nice to meet friends somewhere that isn't a pub.

Local places always complain about people using chains, but if they aren't open how do they expect to compete. I also hate that by 3pm they are making you feel unwelcome when they don't shut for another hour.

Agree! We sometimes go on cycle touring trips and it's annoying to arrive at a town hungry at about 4pm and end up in the awkward gap when the cafes are closed but it's too early for an evening meal. Or if we've been out doing something during the day and want a cake when we've finished.

I think everything shuts too early. Most stuff apart from pubs and restaurants in my city centre close at 5. In would love to saunter into town in the evening and have a nose round there shops and a cup of tea or something but instead it's like a ghost town.

Our small-city neighborhood has three desert cafes! They are open late into the evening and seem really popular. It's a great alternative for non-drinkers.

Gosh well I don't know - there's an explosion of cake/bubble tea/ice cream/coffee shops near me and they all stay open well into the night.

We have some lovely dog friendly tea rooms on our local dog walks and it's such a pleasure to stop for a coffee and cake at the end of a pleasant stroll. But I often ponder why they are only open from 10am - 3pm when most of the dog walkers that are a large part of their business seem to be out earlier in morning and then later in the afternoon or early evening.

During the summer months I'd love to stop for a cake treat on a lovely summer evening after a wander through the countryside. It seems like a flawed business plan for the tea rooms and based around the staff's preferences rather than the customers' lifestyle.

There was a cafe in Cork that used to open until 9pm. It was a brilliant alternative to the pub and always heaving at that time.

I remember being very disappointed to find Insomnia closed at all. With a name like that I was expecting 2am coffee.

Oh yes, this!

I agree with you OP - we usually want coke and coffee late afternoon, only to find the place is closing down and there’s no cake left.

Yes I agreed with all of the comments, it’s a bugbear of mine too. And hate the feeling of being rushed if you visit in the last hour before closing.

another annoyance is that our local cafe is closed on a Monday, which is my day off work.

@Longdistance that's a good point. The big franchise companies like Costa and Starbucks make the gains.

In a very popular walking spot in Shropshire we came down from the hills on a holiday weekend Saturday at about 4 pm gasping for tea and fancying cake and found nowhere open to get them. Loads of others in the same situation were traipsing round in a futile attempt to find a tea shop. Eventually we found an ice cream parlour that grudgingly sold us ices. It was ridiculous, as though they actively wanted to deter people from visiting.

my Dd works in a local cafe, they make all the cakes, quiches, soups and scones in the tiny kitchen, where they have to store it all. By 3 they have run out of everything. Also the staff are on from start to finish, it’s not big enough or have enough staff to split shifts. Then it’s clean down. So that’s why in their case. Imagine it might be the same for some others.

Also, another hillwalker here who is looking for comfort and sustenance in a dinky tea shop after coming off a hill. So disappointing.

Yes, I suspect there’s more much more money to be made opening early for breakfast and closing mid/late afternoon than opening later and serving teas into the evening. The additional staff required to to a 10 hour day is probably not with the cost or hassle…I’m sure if there was enough demand they’d open. You only have to go into a Costa or Nero in a non city location in the late afternoon to see how dead they often are.

Remember Tribes on Tuckey Street that used to open until the early hours?

I wonder if the earlier hours accommodate older people better perhaps? I was just thinking about my grandparents who would go out early to do their shopping then afterwards go to a tearoom somewhere for a coffee and pastry about 10ish.
I'm only 35 so I don't know if I'll be doing that when I get to 70 plus 😂 but, I've rarely gone to a tea room or coffee shop in the morning. For me, cake in the afternoon is preferable I'd say.

I agree too, I would have loved to be able to take the DC to a cafe after school occasionally when they were little but the only options were Costa etc. I understand the staffing issues though and that it probably just isn't worthwhile for the most part.

Around here there are some pubs that do a daytime menu of coffee and cake etc now which is nice.

@Whatsleftnow that was for

100% agree. I think so many are run almost as a hobby so they just want to pack up and go home rather than offer an actual service.

Yes absolutely

What I would really like is for a few of them to stay open to six or even 7 (in bigger towns) and do high tea, so you can go in and have cheese on toast and whatever so you don’t have to make dinner.