The vastness that once was Toymaster is now an independent cafe, a warm one with clean tables, lots of space, loose leaf teas on the counter, and soft seats. So far, so good.
Eh. I dunno. When I saw this was going to open, I was super excited. New cafe! In my town! Yes!
See, Skipton has a Costa, and more recently, a Caffé Nero, which opened a few doors down from Costa (boldly ignoring the council and little details like planning permission), and lots of cute shops have gone bust. See for example my beloved Russian Tea Room. Heartbreak.
But here is Capo, a gigantic place as Skipton goes, and it just... Doesn't. Doesn't what? You ask. Just doesn't. It isn't entirely its own fault perhaps; it's always practically empty and short on atmosphere (cause or effect?) and the menu is disappointing: nothing but sandwiches and jacket tatties with uninspired and uninspiring fillings. The service, given the number of people in here when I went: slow.
The fact is stretches back so far beyond the shop front means there's very little in the way of natural light, which you can capitalise on to make a cosy cave of a place, but they haven't. It's just all a bit DFS, or like it was built in The Sims: Hot Date: too blocky and repetitive.
And my toasty, at just under four quid: nothing special. Shop bread and a lettuce leaf sitting disconsolately beside it. I mean, tasty enough, and if I'd got it from a cart at a festival I wouldn't mind, but not worth the price and not worth the ten minute wait.
The weird thing is it feels like a chain coffee shop crossed with a cheap sandwich shop. It's having a massive identity crisis and needs to figure out what it wants to be, and fast. It's got a great location and a lovely space, and all the potential, but it isn't offering anything you can't get elsewhere and it isn't offering it at an equal standard. For my part, I'm going back to Cafe 76 for now. read more