The People I Know and The People I Meet - Mark @ Swn Y Mor
Mark Gardner, Owner of Swn Y Mor Restaurant & Blue China Tea House
Strange how the world can seem such a small place now and again, and how some peoples paths are meant to cross.
I’ve lived most of my life in Northampton in England and as some of you may know, from reading my other blogs (and if you don’t already know this, click through to read some of my other blogs after this one please…), I’ve spent as much of my time as possible in North Wales. I spent so much of my childhood summer holidays at my best friend, Nicks’ family house, that Wales became my second home.
Nick’s family used to have little boats, a dinghy and then later a small speedboat. They’d launch from Black Rock Sands / Morfa Bychan where the whole extended family would get together for a day of fun, food and relaxing. On special occasions, we’d cruise across the bay in the boat to Criccieth, a small picturesque seaside town, to pick up some lunch to eat back at the beach…
One of those establishments we’d buy lunch from and situated right on the front of the bay next to the Lifeboat station, is Blue China. You can’t miss it, the building is blue and in big white letters on the roof is the word Teas and it’s been a traditional Welsh Tea Room since 1926.
Mark sits on and surveys a small part of his empire.
The owner is Mark. Over the years we’ve got to know each other and we’ve discovered our paths have been a lot closer than we realised.
Marks’ family took over Blue China in 1989, about the same time I started driving my then girlfriend and I up to Wales for weekends camping with our friends. Mark is the third generation of the Gardner family to own and run Blue China. Before this, Mark lived in Kettering, a town just down the road from Northampton where I’ve lived the majority of my life. And now my little Welsh cottage is just down the road from Marks home…
Adjoining Blue China, is a larger restaurant, Swn Y Mor. Marks family took ownership of that business in 2008 after Mark left the RAF. It’s incredibly hard for me not to visit Mark for a cooked breakfast at his restaurant at least once, every time I’m in Wales. His food is all locally sourced, generously portioned and his staff are all friendly and happy to be working there. Marks outlook on staff is that you should enjoy going to work with him. If you’re not happy working at Swn Y Mor and Blue China, the customer can’t have the best service… It seems to be working, because I’ve always had great service there and his seasonal staff keep coming back each year.
Mark making another excellent coffee. Yes, I did enjoy it.
Not only does mark serve excellent food in a welcoming manner, but go there enough times and you’ll more than likely end up meeting most of his family. It wasn’t long ago that you’d sit in Swn Y Mor, and multiple generations of Mark’s family would be at a table or two, enjoying the atmosphere and each others company. There are still photo’s on the wall of Marks relatives, including two time heavyweight British and Empire boxing champion Jack Gardner. Family is really important to Mark and his business, actually that should be expanding business, as a new venture was started in neighbouring Porthmadog the other year that Marks sister now runs.
There’s another reason for enjoying Marks hospitality. I absolutely believe, that in a small community such as Criccieth and Porthmadog, we, as visitors, should spend or rather invest, our hard earned money in local business. As much as is humanly possible, I will not support large chain operations in the economies of small communities. Business owners such as Mark and indeed the other amazing people in this series, put their heart and souls into their work and client experience. We as consumers should and must, support these endeavours and I thoroughly encourage you to as well. You’ll feel all the better for it too. I promise. Ok, stepping off my soapbox now…
So, for now, if you’re ever in North Wales and fancy popping into a non commercial area of the coast, I’ll leave Marks details below. Go and treat yourself to some warm hospitality, even if it’s just for a tea or coffee (although it’ll be very hard to resist temptation from the menu and dessert cabinet), you’ll be made very welcome.
Mark enjoying the fruits of his labour on his restaurant roof terrace.
