AN ISLE of Wight cafe has returned following a huge community effort to keep ‘the heart of Freshwater’ open after the building’s leaseholders closed the doors to its evening restaurant at Christmas last year.

Cath and Mike’s, under the management of Cath and Mike Dasent, co-existed in the same building, sharing a kitchen and eating area for two and half years, with Chinese restaurant Petesaria, the leaseholders of the School Green Road venue.

Open during the daytime, the cafe would close and hand over to the restaurant that served in the evening hours.

Just before Christmas last year, Petesaria informed Cath and Mike that the Chinese business was closing but allowed the pair to keep the cafe going until the end of the year.

Isle of Wight County Press: Cath and Mike Dasent, owners of the cafeCath and Mike Dasent, owners of the cafe (Image: Cath and Mike's Facebook)

The regular customers asked Cath and Mike if they would take on the lease of the building, but the couple did not have the funds to do so.

Within seven and a half hours, without consulting with Cath and Mike, the cafe’s regulars had completely raised the money, handing the couple almost £10,500, with more than half of that given as gifts.

One customer gave £2,500 as a long-term loan, but within a week, told the couple that they only wanted £500 back.

Another customer asked for Mike’s bank account details so they could send a £1,000 gift, saying, ‘treat me no different, charge me the same, and every day I’ll come in here and still leave my £2 tip!’

Five minutes later, yet another customer gave a £1,000 gift, saying ‘you are the heart of Freshwater, I will do everything in my power to help keep this place open, you’re my favourite cafe.’

Entering the cafe with an envelope with £800 inside, another regular told Mike, ‘I’m really sorry, but that is all I can do’, stating that they did not want to see a penny of it returned to them.

Cath and Mike’s officially reopened on January 24, following a few ‘trial runs’ to help with the new menus and several changes around the cafe to make the place their own.

Two of the biggest sellers are the all-day breakfasts and Sunday roasts, with the majority of the menu featuring ‘hearty, homemade food’, including burgers, steaks, curries, ribs, fishcakes, sandwiches, soups, stews and much more, as well as serving tea, coffee and alcoholic beverages.

Mike told the County Press: “It’s been unprecedented, and it really has been something we wouldn’t have dreamed in our wildest dreams.

“We’ve been here for two and a half years, and this has been some of the busiest couple of weeks we’ve had.

“We’ve been doing better days than sometimes we did in the summer. It’s been phenomenal.”

Currently closed on Mondays, the cafe is open between 9am – 5pm on Tuesdays to Thursdays, from 9am – around 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 10am – around 4pm on Sundays.

Mike concluded: “We’re going to put as many hours into this as we can to make this work for ourselves and for people who have put their trust and their money behind this.”