Cafe Amiti reopens under new management

Friday 20 July 2018

The restaurant at La Nouvelle Maraitaine is reopening today, three months after it was closed with no notice given to the facility's managers, staff or residents.

Cafe Amiti is run as a private business on a lease agreed with the Guernsey Housing Association which owns and manages the entire facility.

The businessman who previously held the lease withdrew from the contract in April, as reported by Express, with petty debts action taken against the parent company, Doughlicious, for non payment of social security and tax.

The sudden closure meant that residents of the extra care housing facility were left without an on-site restaurant or cafe facility and had to reply on cooking for themselves or relatives and friends helping them out.

La Nouvelle Maraitaine was designed and built to replace the previous Maison Maritaine, but offers more independent living quarters to current residents than were previously available. The States describe extra care housing as designed to help people live "as independently as possible with the confidence of being in a safe environment with a flexible, tailored package of care and support offered by trained staff."

There are three such facilities in Guernsey; La Nouvelle Maraitaine, Le Grand Courtil and Rosaire Court. La Nouvelle Maraitaine and Le Grand Courtil are managed by the Guernsey Housing Association. Rosaire Court is managed by Housing 21, with the care & support is provided by HSC.

The GHA had told Express the closure of Cafe Amiti was "unexpected" and that staff were only made aware when the facility was closed.

Residents also told Express that the closure was sudden with very little warning. Mrs Beryl Le Feuvre said they received letters advising them of a meeting where residents were told that Cafe Amiti had shut. She said she and some other residents read their letters too late to attend the meeting so they only found out about the closure after it had happened.

Now, Mrs Le Feuvre and other residents will have the option of eating and drinking at an onsite restaurant again, with a couple taking on the business with it scheduled to reopen today.

Nour and Jill Sayed Ahmed are the new proprietors of the café and the GHA said they "bring with them a fresh menu and passion for community togetherness."

“My husband Nour and I are excited to be partnering with the GHA to bring a community café to the residents at La Nouvelle Maraitaine and the wider public,” said Mrs Sayed Ahmed.

“We are passionate about quality home-cooked food and the power that sharing a meal has to bring people together – the name of the café itself means friendship and peace, so I hope we can create an atmosphere of community.”

GHA chief executive Steve Williams added: “We look forward to welcoming Nour and Jill to Café Amiti and are excited about their new menu and their plans to create a close-knit community feel at La Nouvelle Maraitaine. 

“Their journey from east to west brings a unique flavour to the café and its community. We appreciate it hasn’t been easy for some residents following the closure and would like to thank them for their patience while we found new management. We are confident in the direction that Nour and Jill will take the café moving forward.”

Pictured: The couple now running Cafe Amiti at La Nouvelle Maraitaine. They have said they are looking forward to working with residents and staff of the Extra Care Housing facility once the restaurant reopens today