Serving coffee with a Christian flavour - Cafe Culture opens in Harrogate

A café with a difference has opened its doors in Harrogate.  With the support and backing of their local church, St Mark’s Harrogate, professional chef, Graham Carter and his wife Glenda have launched ‘Café Culture’, with the aim of creating a coffee shop with a Christian ethos. The new coffee shop is on the Leeds Road close to the junction of Leadhall Lane and Hookstone Road.

For twelve years, Graham and Glenda ran the Garden  Room Restaurant at Harlow Carr Gardens and more recently Graham has had his own Leeds catering firm, but he gave it up in order to pursue the vision of a café with a  spiritual dimension, serving the local community with more than just good food and drink.  

“We’re aiming,” he told Together, “to create a coffee shop - café which will be welcoming warm and comfortable. The Christian ethos we hope is seen in the quality, style, service and presentation.” 

Able to seat up to sixty in comfort, Cafe Culture is open six days a week from 8am – 5pm and Graham and Glenda employ one full time and four part time staff, serving coffees, a wide variety of teas, and cakes, sandwiches, and pastries all handmade on the premises using fair trade, organic and locally sourced ingredients.

Outside opening hours, Café Culture is already being used by the local church for youth group meetings, bible studies, and in the future will be used for  Alpha suppers for those learning about the faith.

Getting the balance right is important, says Graham Carter: “We would like Café Culture to be known as a place where Christians work and are happy to listen and talk about their faith. It’s important, too, that  it is known as a place were fair trade, social justice, environmental issues are practiced, that it benefits the local community and that it can be used for various community projects which encourage the Christian faith in the area.”