Internet cafe Venue to boost Chester’s Brook Street

Feb 27 2009 Chester Chronicle

A BELEAGUERED street has received a much-needed caffeine injection thanks to the opening of a trendy internet cafe.

Chester’s Brook Street has suffered recent shop closures but is now perking up thanks to the launch of coffee house Venue by business partners Gus Aktepe and Dan Lay.

But the pair will stay in the background.

Greeting customers will be catering professionals Laura Hargreaves and Martyna Korsan with part-time help from students Hara Morgan and Klaudia Bacinska.

Gus, 33, said: “We set out to bring modern coffee culture to Brook Street and the response has been great.

“We chose the name Venue because it fits what we are offering, a decent place to meet for a coffee.

“With the growing number of residents around here, we identified a gap in facilities at this end of town and are seeking to fill it and provide something much needed.

“ Customers don’t have to use the internet, but if they do want to access it there are nine screens upstairs.”

Business partner Dan, 27, said: “Venue’s décor is sleek and modern in keeping with what people have come to expect these days.

“Together with the quality coffee, we hope to attract a lot of local regulars as well as passers-by.”

Brought up in Port Sunlight, Dan, was a regular visitor to Chester and familiar with Brook Street as he made his way to and from the railway station.

“I never dreamed I’d have a business here,” he added.

Nor did Gus who came to the North West every winter from Turkey to improve his English before taking a business course at Warrington then enrolling in computer science at university in Chester.

He already runs a computer shop in Brook Street and Dan specialises in software for an Ellesmere Port firm.