A woman in her twenties has recently opened her very own café in a village just outside of Reading.

Natacha Parker, 26, opened the doors to The Hidden Gem Café on Monday, July 8, and has already seen plenty of customers.

“The first week has been really good,” she said.

The café is situated in Alice Bye Court, Thatcham, and has become a great hit with residents who live in the surrounding properties.

Ms Parker continued: “Most of the residents are from homes for over 55. They had a café a year or so ago and since then they’ve had no means for socialisation. Some of them don’t have any family as well.

“We put on music in here and they love it, they’ve all said that us being here has made such a difference in just a week.”

Ms Parker and her team try to cook mainly home-cooked food at a very affordable cost. The meals on offer include toasted sandwiches, fry-ups, salads, and omelettes.

The café is open to everybody, not just the residents, which is something that Ms Parker wants to promote.

“We had the deputy mayor in the other day who is supporting us and trying to spread the word around Thatcham,” she said.

“I’m going to do roast dinners once a month, fish and chip evenings. Stuff and events for the community. We want to push that we are a community hub for everyone.”

Ms Parker said she isn’t bothered about making loads of money as she really just wants the café to be a place for people to spend time with each other and eat great food.

A lot of residents have allegedly commented on how affordable the food is and have said that it is a lot cheaper to go to the café than into the town.

Ms Parker continued “We’ve had family members in like one lady who has just been sitting in her flat for eight months and has trouble socialising as she can't leave the block.

“We’ve also got a gentleman who is 103 who comes down with his walker every day and he’s absolutely loving it and is over the moon that we are here.

“We’ve already decided to put a special on Mondays for steak and kidney pie as this was a request from the customers.”

Ms Parker said she is tailoring the café to suit customers at this point in time as she is concerned above everything with making them happy.