Cardiff Bakestones, the Welsh cake stall known for its long queues at Cardiff Market, is opening its first standalone shop on Wellfield Road in Roath within weeks. The new store will add to its existing outlets at Cardiff Market and Trago Mills and will also offer nationwide delivery, a service owner Adam El Tagoury says has seen strong demand.
Expansion Driven by Demand
The stall, which has an online following of more than 13,000 people, has become so busy that El Tagoury said the business has reached maximum capacity at the market. He explained that the lack of storage facilities for packaging meant a larger facility was needed to start fulfilling online orders.
"I think we've had a bit of a snowball effect this year with social media and how that's gone," he said. "We've had so much demand for online sales and to post around the country. We are at maximum capacity at Cardiff Market and the obvious next step is opening a shop which gives us a bigger facility so we can start doing online orders."
El Tagoury, known on social media as 'the Welsh cake man', added: "We don't have the storage facilities at the market for packaging so we needed to get a bigger facility, but we'll always be in the market, that's our bread and butter."
New Location and Opening Plans
The new shop will replace former women's clothing store Italus on Wellfield Road, a street that has seen a growing number of food and drink openings, including Square + Fair and A-Head Of The Game Nutrition. The Roath branch will be located next to Ty Melin bakery.
El Tagoury hopes to open the venue on December 1, though he said he would open earlier if possible. He expects the shop to attract dog walkers, locals, and those who want a bake without travelling into the city centre.
"There's a really nice bakery there at the moment but nobody is really specialising in Welsh cakes," he said. "There are a couple of good Danish bakeries and really nice coffee shops. We love Wellfield Road, it's such a nice area, great clientele, people come to the rec walking their dogs. You can walk your dogs with a hot bag of Welsh cakes and a nice coffee and job's a good'un."
The addition of Cardiff Bakestones is expected to further strengthen Wellfield Road's reputation as one of Cardiff's trendiest food streets. El Tagoury said: "Everyone seems really happy about it and we can't wait to be in the Roath area and having a presence there."
