The Fourpence Cafe & Shop — Restaurant in England

Having been recommended by a friend and read the reviews we passed through Ulverston on Market Saturday. Lots of fun. Arrived at the Four Pence; A table for 4 and 2 for 2 were empty. We were in luck. When asked if it was a table for 4 we said “there are 6 of us”. (4 adults and two teenagers). “We don’t do 6.” Was the curt response. “We’re happy to sit separately?” I replied. [Just to fill in the imagery: I’m stood there with my walking stick and sunflower lanyard, clearly disabled. My wife and two children.] The response was bemusing. “Oh, okay.” it was dower and disgruntled reply. It came across rude. Sometimes people can just be having a moment, I come from a background of customer service and have worked in restaurants. Why make potential customers think twice about whether to come in? Maybe they are doing well for themselves and can pick and choose customers. This certainly isn’t most people’s experience here. In a post-lockdown scenario there are plenty of mitigating factors.

However, we were about to sit and have lunch, 6 covers. There were two other tables with customers and there is no hustle and bustle. It’s pretty chill. But it was my mum’s 80th. It hadn’t started well and my gut said move on. We decided against it, fearful the experience would go further down hill. I said, “we’ve decided against it because your response felt rude.” Here is an easy opportunity to rectify any misunderstanding . . . Perhaps a “sorry” and we can hit reset?

The hostess continues to insist they don’t seat sixes. I replied that we would’ve been happy to sit apart. They would get the same money.

The male host then came to engage. (I don’t appreciate someone stepping into my space and squaring up against me. He clearly wasn’t there to hearing us and just in case I don’t understand they don’t have table for 6, he repeats that point. I simply reiterated. “We had been happy to sit as a two and a four on separate tables, that was already resolved. But I’m letting you know that the reason we’re leaving is that you’re coming across rudely.” I didn’t add aggressive. But his arrival and proximity was poorly considered. We left. That was...

It was Mum who first spotted it, a curious little shop window with bottle brushes dangling from strings like ornaments. At first glance it looked like a quirky hardware store, but a closer look revealed it was something much more intriguing: a café. The Fourpence Café & Shoppe. We stepped inside and were instantly transported.

Run by the warm and welcoming Jane and Sam, the Fourpence is like stepping into another world, part tearoom, part curiosity shop, part living museum. Tables are dressed with crisp starched linen, china teapots gleam white, and around the room are treasures for sale: chairs, teacups, oddities, and antiques. Even the seats beneath us carried price tags. It felt like a scene from a bygone era, a place where time had slowed down.

At the next table, a lady was enquiring about buying a top hat. Sam, with gentle humour, explained it would be far too big for her head. She laughed and settled for a cream-topped scone instead. Moments like this only added to the theatre of the place.

We ordered tea, poured from proper teapots into china mugs, along with toasted plum bread, rich, sweet, and perfectly warming. Mum was utterly entranced. She wandered her eyes across the shelves, smiling at trinkets and photographs that reminded her of the 1940s. It was like watching her walk through her own childhood.

The café alone would be reason enough to come back to Ulverston, but as we stepped back into the autumn sunshine, the town offered more. From the streets, you catch glimpses of the Sir John Barrow Monument, standing proudly on its hilltop above the town, a perfect backdrop to a day of gentle...

Having travelled 3 hours, I was really looking forward to a cosy, friendly tearoom in the heart of the old town of Ulverston however what I was instead met with, was the opposite.

The cafe was full, and we , as a family decided to wait for a table. We notified the waitress who greeted us with a distasteful , 'there is no table for you'. We shrugged this comment off, and continued to wait. In this time, another family also began to wait behind us.

When a table was cleared , the waitress called for the family behind us to come in , despite us waiting in the front of the queue? We were confused at this and approached the waitress with the fact that we were waiting first, to which we were met with a dismissive, 'mmm.'

From the onset, this waitress' manner toward us was rude and disrespectful, and we can't help but think this was towards the colour of our skin.

I would not recommend this cafe to anyone. A cafe is supposed to be a warm, embracing environment yet we were left shocked and horrified at the service and behaviour of it. An insulting, and dare I say, racist excuse of...