Having grown up in Falmouth, Emily worked at the cafe long before she was the owner. She worked for then boss Fiona, and left after a couple of years to pursue a career in architectural engineering. Shortly after this time, Emily’s mother Diane was diagnosed with terminal cancer, completely flipping life upside down. When things started getting difficult at work on top of this, Emily knew she had to make a change in her life.

“I was aware I had to pay rent, so I went back to Castle Beach Cafe,” Emily said. “Fiona was always really understanding as a boss, and I just enjoyed myself when I was there. Mum would come down after her chemo and get an ice cream, and Fiona was always so supportive and understanding of my home life. She largely inspired the kind of boss I try to be today.”

When Fiona wanted to take a step back from the business, Emily suddenly found herself thinking about the future of Castle Beach Cafe, as well as her own future.

“It was something I wanted to do, but thought maybe it wasn’t the right time,” she explained. “I approached the landlord anyway. I was 26 with no experience of running a business, and my mum was unwell, so I thought all these things would mean it wouldn’t work out in my favour. But he (the landlord) still chose me, which was a huge confidence boost. He was very passionate about community, and I think he could see I shared the same values.”

While this exciting transition began, it came at a sad time for Emily’s family. Diane very sadly passed away, which meant Emily now faced the rocky path of coping with grief, while taking on the brand new challenge of becoming a business owner.

“The cafe was there for me during the grief,” she said. “I used my grief as a way to put all my energy into it. It was so consuming running a business, it was a great distraction.”

Three years on, Emily and Castle Beach Cafe have a bright future ahead of them.

Social media has been a driving force for reaching the community, with Emily admitting that she has spent a lot of time building up a strong following to reflect the values of Castle Beach Cafe and her stellar team of enthusiastic employees, who all have either grown up here in Falmouth, or have been drawn to the coastal town’s appeal for their university years. With subtle changes made since taking the business on, Castle Beach Cafe still retains its familiar warmth and open-armed welcome, a nod to previous owner Fiona’s practices that originally instilled a sense of belonging at the cafe in the first place. One of those key values is having a team that gels, and who feel heard and seen in the workplace.

Emily said: “I’ve kept a lot of Fiona’s community values here. Without those, I wouldn’t be running a business that I love. It’s about belonging to a community; I’ve always loved the idea of having people around me. It’s a sense of camaraderie - that’s what I’ve always wanted to have.

“I think there’s a lot of ‘us and them’ in the hospitality industry, so it’s important to me to break down that barrier. I have ten employees of all age ranges, genders and backgrounds. I think something beautiful about this is it brings people together.”

Bringing the wider community to this beautiful little spot by the coast is what the team are truly passionate about. The vastly popular ABBA Nights, hosted by the cafe, continue to bring the masses to Castle Beach for one night every summer. It is their biggest event of the year, a night of dancing and singing along to ABBA’s greatest hits under the moonlight. In 2024, the event brought around 3,000 people to the beach, and this summer is set to follow suit. This, plus everything to come in 2025, is an exciting prospect for Emily.

“Community spirit is really strong here,” she said. “I think there’s a certain sort of person that lives in Falmouth; they share the same values: supporting local businesses, helping people less fortunate than themselves. I think there’s something so cosy about community. A lot of people know each other here, there are a lot of connections.”

With storms in recent years having destroyed much of the cafe’s outdoor seating, Emily has been granted planning permission to build a storm-proof shipping container with a glass front to withstand the turbulent weather conditions experienced on the coast. This will allow customers to sit inside during the winter months, and protect the cafe’s seating from damage during any future storms.

Emily also hopes to have an extra coffee machine installed in the cafe’s ice cream shed, in order to meet the demand of big queues during the busy season.

Emily is grateful to everyone who has made the effort to support the cafe, whether it’s buying a coffee after a sea swim or beach walk, bringing a whole crowd of friends and family to indulge in the cafe’s menu, attending the cafe’s events, or simply sharing a post on Instagram or Facebook.

As the cafe gets busier throughout the spring and summer seasons, Emily is now looking to grow her team of employees, and looks forward to welcoming customers to the new outdoor seating space, set to be filled with books, fairylights, and offering beautiful views of the ocean from the shelter of the indoors.

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