Shell Beach Cafe ‘one of the best in Britain’
SHELL Beach Cafe featured as one of the best British beach cafes in the Daily Mail.
Branded as compact and car-free with the Channel Islands’ most picturesque beaches and sparse crowds, Herm Island was delighted to see it featured.
‘It’s always great to put Herm on the map and get the island’s name out to a wider audience. So many people in the UK still have no idea where Guernsey is, let alone Herm,’ said Kate Evans, Herm Island marketing & PR manager.
Prior to publication, staff from the newspaper approached the island’s management for recent photos, which were superseded by a chance encounter.
Ironically, on the day of publication a Daily Mail journalist had completed their isolation in Guernsey, after their boat broke down between Europe and England, Mrs Evans said.
They joined the new nature trail launch and took a picture of the cafe on their trip.
Poor weather hampered visitors to the island for most of May, but the slow start to the season picked up in June, particularly on the most recent bank holiday weekend.
Bookings are very strong for the summer, Mrs Evans said.
‘But we are now juggling guests who must postpone their trips due to either themselves or members of their family not being double vaccinated.’
Guests new and old are being added to a waiting list to snap up available slots.
‘That said, we have many non-Bailiwick guests booked in from July who do fulfil the requirements and are longing to get back to their favourite holiday destination and enjoy sitting in this idyllic spot with an ice cream from Shell Beach Cafe.’
Food provision was somewhat downplayed in the article, branded ‘an old-fashioned menu’ which ‘spans sandwiches, fizzy pop and ice creams,’ and originally it said the kiosk was red when it is now blue.
Last summer food provision at the kiosks at both Shell and Belvoir was taken on by the Mermaid Tavern, offering a wider variety of food and drinks, both hot and cold, sweet and savoury.
Long-term Mermaid bar manager Michelle Grace took over the kiosk management, and said: ‘Shell is such a lovely, busy, little cafe, and who wouldn’t love coming to work in such a beautiful spot and looking out at this view every day?’
