Where to eat in Wales Eating with Pete

Date Published:

30/05/2008

Café connoisseur Russell, better known as the man behind EggsBaconChipsandBeans.com added Pete’s Eats in North Wales to the Big British Food Map. Andrew laced up his hiking boots and went to find out more

The eponymous Pete Norton has been running Pete's Eats for over 30 years. He's therefore something of an institution among the day-trippers and thrill seekers of Snowdonia national park. And it's a well-deserved reputation, built on fuelling up fresh-faced carb-craving customers with a broad range of café favourites.

I find Pete sitting having a cup a tea and a chat with one of his staff after a busy lunch service, he's that sort of bloke, at ease in his own café, greeting punters, holding forth, having the crack. Pete explains how he's a great band of loyal staff, ranging from the assistant manageress who's been there over ten years, to a couple of 16 year-old kids on work experience.

Unusually they all rotate positions, so everyone gets a spell in the kitchen as well as manning the tills and doing service. They're a big-hearted crew; Pete suffers from a form of cyclical depression, and admits that it's the support and understanding from his staff that help him out through an attack. "People don't so much work for me as with me," he says, admitting he still mucks in and is as happy peeling spuds or washing up as he is out front.

Not just a café

As Pete shows me round I get the feeling that Pete's Eats is not so much a café as a community hub. He tells me he once worked out that there were over 3000 attractions and things to do within an hour's drive of his front door. Downstairs there's a library of donated books, board games, free newspapers and a community notice board. Upstairs there's also a shower (£2 a go), internet access, a schools' area and the map room, where other walkers have donated maps and walking routes from all over the world. Donations from grateful climbers also adorn the walls, a montage of photos of people on summits and some fantastic imagery from famous mountaineer photographer Roy Wood.

Make mine a large one

And so to the food: there's all the usual café faves, the full English, omelettes, toasted sandwiches, meat and two veg. Pete's a vegetarian so veggies are well catered for as well as carnivores. The changing specials take in such family favourites as chilli-con-carne, ham and leek pasta bake, three-bean casserole and lasagne, all of which are made on site. Pete takes a man-sized attitude to his menu. "Our idea of portion control is stopping when it's falling off the plate," he says. His legendary chip butty isn't so much a sandwich as a slice of white bread crushed under a rugby scrum of freshly cooked chips, with another slice teetering on top. You don't need a fork so much as an ice pick and crampons just to get near it (FYI: I conquered it in the name of research).

If you've room for pudding there's homemade pies, cakes, crumbles and biscuits galore. And the tea – as Russell points out in his review – comes in pint-sized mugs. That's right, a whole pint of hot steaming tea. Pete readily admits that if you're after tea in china pots, dainty sandwiches and paper doilies, this ain't the place for you. Cheap filling meals in a friendly warm café however… well take a seat.

Is there a great community café in your neighbourhood? Do you make a pilgrimage to a favourite haunt when on holiday? We’re interested in everything from great greasy spoons to biodynamic organic growers. Why not let us know about the good food in your life and add it to the map.

Read more about Andrew's Welsh travels and find out where he is now.