l-r Babru Miah of Juboraj restaurant, Jenny Willot MP and Giovanni Malacrino of Gios restaurant

The traders of the Cardiff Café Quarter have officially declared their street open for business after two years of re-construction as part of the St Davids 2 development.

As final works to the pedestrianisation linking St Mary Street to Mill Lane nears completion, the traders have announced a jazz festival and celebration of 15 years since the founding of the café quarter one of the first in the UK.

The inaugural Café Quarter ‘Jazz in The Lane’ festival will take place over the weekend of 18th-19th July.

Marking the official opening, Giovanni Malacrino, Chairman of the Café Quarter Association said:

“With the Central Library open and access to Mill Lane improving daily, we wanted to draw a line in the sand and say we are back and better than ever before.  The St David’s 2 will be a fabulous new attraction for our city and we are the gateway to that development and very much part of the new West End of Cardiff.”

Jenny Willott MP officially opened the Café Quarter with Michael Eddershaw President of the Café Quarter and Cllr Nigel Howells, with responsibility for sport, leisure and culture. Mark Seaton,

Manager of the Retro nightclub in Mill Lane said: “As the building work subsides and with Summer upon us we are finding more and more people are coming back to Mill Lane and new people are discovering the attractions here as our businesses have invested in new clubs, refurbishments and new restaurant concepts which are leading the way in Cardiff.”

Matt Zain, manager of one of the new venues, Mocka Lounge which is the title sponsor of the Jazz Festival confirmed that Mill Lane is entering a new phase as an event destination.

“We have a number of exciting and quirky street events line up this summer which will help put us on the map, it is great that the traders have joined forces and put so much effort into making the Café Quarter such an exciting new place for people to come to dine and enjoy themselves.”