{"id":18787,"date":"2013-11-13T17:57:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T17:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/altcardiff\/?p=18787"},"modified":"2013-11-13T17:57:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T17:57:54","slug":"cardiff-character-stephen-barker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2013\/11\/13\/cardiff-character-stephen-barker\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff character: Stephen Barker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"IMG_1033

Stephen Barker, 41, is the co-owner of the independent caf\u00e9, Coffee Barker<\/a>. The caf\u00e9 opened its doors in 2009 as an addition to Barker\u2019s clothing store<\/a>. Now it has become a separate entity and it will soon be joined by sister store, Barker Tea House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Judging by Stephen\u2019s appearance he\u2019s just come from the unfinished Barker Tea House. He\u2019s dressed in a blue body warmer, a pair of scruffy white trainers and a pair of cream tracksuit bottoms that are stained from decorating. He has a salt and pepper beard and a Welsh accent that pins his home in the valleys.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Barker Cardiff<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Barker clothing store, Barker Cardiff, has been open since the 1970s. Stephen left school and went straight into working in the shop. He describes the experience as good fun, since there were pretty girls, clothes, loud music and he got into bars for nothing.<\/p>\n

Stephen lives in Blackwood with his wife Charlotte, who is the second owner of Coffee Barker. \u201cI met Charlotte back in 1990. She was a customer in the clothing shop, a very pretty young lady. She came in for a job, but we didn\u2019t have any work for her unfortunately. She took on a job next door and the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Coffee Barker<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the opening of St David\u2019s 2, The Barkers found that footfall moved to that part of the city, and away from the arcades. They opened Coffee Barker to add an extra element to the clothing shop to attract customers. After 40 years of being open, the clothing shop will be closing after Christmas so Coffee Barker can expand, but Stephen isn\u2019t sad about the losing the shop. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be nostalgic,\u201d he says. \u201cThe fact is like anything in life we need to move forward. It\u2019s welcome to the real world, welcome to being self-employed. It\u2019s littered with setbacks and disappointments, but sometimes the most satisfying things come out of the worst things; it\u2019s like anything in life. If it\u2019s all too easy then it\u2019s not life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen still works four months in India designing clothes for Barker Cardiff. His job allows him to travel around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a love for having a nice time, and I like dining out, as you can see,\u201d Stephen says, as he taps his belly, \u201cand I like dining out all over the world. I do a lot of work in India, a lot of work in China, and my favourite city\u2019s New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen believes in the philosophy that if you enjoy your work, you\u2019ll never work a day in your life. He describes his work as being natural to him. \u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Barker Tea House<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coffee Barker\u2019s new Barker Tea House will be opening in High Street arcade later this month.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe saw an opportunity for tea, in that it\u2019s got slightly more of an opportunity to provide an occasion for people,\u201d Stephen says. \u201cIt\u2019s more feminine. We\u2019ll still be providing a nice time for people, but with a slightly different flavour.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Barker talks about the opening of the new Barker Tea House. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":18809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[3277,1436,173,253,3278,275,3279,3280,3281,3282,3283,3284,2200,634],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-18787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-barker-cardiff","tag-cafe","tag-cardiff-character","tag-castle-arcade","tag-clothing","tag-coffee","tag-coffee-barker","tag-enjoyment","tag-high-street-arcade","tag-pleasure","tag-profile","tag-stephen-barker","tag-tea","tag-travel"],"yoast_head":"\nCardiff character: Stephen Barker - alt.cardiff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2013\/11\/13\/cardiff-character-stephen-barker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff character: Stephen Barker - 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