Pizzini Coffee Shop on High Street, Bottesford reopens after January floods

A family business that was forced to close due to flooding shortly has reopened to the public.

Following a six-week renovation process, the award-winning Pizzini Coffee Shop in High Street, Bottesford, reopened on Friday, February 14.

When the shop first flooded on January 6, the owners Teresa and Ralph Morgan didn’t know how long the renovations and insurance would take and said they could be shut for as long as six months.

But their landlord wanted to help the couple reopen as soon as possible, so he helped with some temporary repairs to enable the reopening. The couple will continue to repair and decorate for the next few months to ensure the premises returns to its full glory.

Teresa said: “It is fantastic to be back in business, we had a lot of support from everyone in the community and it is great to see that we continue to be successful and that people still love coming here.

“It’s been quite a journey, and the renovation process is still ongoing, so bear with us as we work towards returning to some form of normality after the flood, while we are constantly working hard to make further improvements to the shop.”

On January 6, the family went to open the café around 8am to find the business already flooded due to the torrential rain and melted snow which caused widespread flooding in the village and surrounding areas and got worse throughout the day.

Pizzini Coffee Shop had only just reopened after being closed for six weeks while Ralph recovered from a knee surgery so it was devastating for them to close again..

At the time of the floods, Ralph and Teresa Morgan and their son Charlie said that they had never seen or experienced floods.

The village was deeply impacted following the flooding of the River Devon, River Smite and the village’s ford by St Mary the Virgin’s Church, which left the main street looking like a “river”.

The coffee shop had ankle-level water which caused damage to a lot of equipment and the floor.

The team, which says to be very pleased to be back in business, made its return to the shop with more homemade cakes, Pizzini breakfast and pizzas.

The cafe is open Tuesday to Wednesday from 8.30am to 5pm and Thursday to Saturday from 8.30am to 8pm.