‘Good coffee, great atmosphere’ at new Barking cafe

A cafe “with a difference” will be opening its doors next week.

Dagenham entrepreneurs Greta and Flamur Delia will be adding a new string to their bow after transforming an empty shop space in Barking into the artfully decorated Coffee Talks.

“A lot of cafes I wouldn’t want to go into,” admitted Greta, 36. “We want to create a great atmosphere and sell good coffee.”

Greta, who lives with Flamur, 41, and their two sons in Walnut Tree Road, Dagenham, will manage the business full-time while her husband will continue running his logistics company.

A chef and two assistants complete the team, who will run the cafe 12 hours a day, seven days a week, selling everything from filled crepes to pasta dishes and freshly-made sandwiches.

The well-chosen furniture and boutique lamps may seem like a hipster trappings, but are actually made and fixed by Greta’s dad Sigitas Jakubaitas, a 59-year-old artist who flew over from Lithuania for a month to lend his expertise.

Look a little closer and you notice his handiwork fills the cafe, from the barrels sliced in half to create beautiful tabletops to the £2 curtains made of coffee bean sacks.

The palette furniture in the extensive second room also stems from a “waste not, want not” mentality, taken from thrown-out scraps in Flamur’s yard when he worked as a warehouse manager.

Empty for more than a year after previous incarnations as an estate agency and launderette, the new cafe should benefit from a flood of customers tired after shopping at Asda opposite in London Road.

Greta, who also used to work in logistics, is cautiously optimistic about her new project.

“I’m excited but frightened as well,” she admitted. “We don’t know how it’s going to go but we’re hoping to do something a little different.”