A construction worker who spent years playing chess at a caf\u00e9 loved it so much that he has bought the business.<\/p>\n
Constantine Tataru, 40, took over the former Matestone in Maidstone after the previous owner decided to sell, reopening it as Romalge earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Constantine Tataru with a chess board<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9 had long been a gathering point for chess players, with regulars enjoying games, conversation and coffee.<\/p>\n
Constantine, originally from Romania, was not prepared to watch that community dissolve.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI love chess so much, I bought the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a big group of chess players here. Around 30 people come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to lose the community because we are a big group of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homemade cakes and pastries on display at Romalge<\/p>\n
Now he runs the business alongside his wife Israa, whose passion for cooking and baking fills the counter each morning with homemade cakes, pastries, savoury food and speciality coffees \u2014 all made from scratch.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe make everything from zero to finished product. We make fresh food every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Constantine also carried out much of the refurbishment himself, drawing on his construction background to add new seating and give the space a fresh look.<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9\u2019s name, Romalge, weaves together Romania and Algeria, the two countries behind the husband-and-wife team.<\/p>\n
Constantine and Israa first met in 2019 while studying in Italy.<\/p>\n
Constantin Tataru, the owner of Romalge caf\u00e9<\/p>\n
Israa said: \u201cWe liked each other straight away but we only smiled and went our separate ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three days later, they crossed paths again by chance while she was looking for a shop.<\/p>\n
Constantine decided to be brave and invited her for a coffee.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThat was the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
They later moved to the United Kingdom and built their life, and now their business, together.<\/p>\n
Israa, who previously worked as a university teacher and speaks several languages, brings the kitchen to life while Constantine keeps the chess games going.<\/p>\n
Romalge caf\u00e9 has been given a fresh new look.<\/p>\n
He wants Romalge to offer something most town centre caf\u00e9s do not: peace and quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is noise everywhere you go. If you drive, there is radio. If you go to work, there is noise. We wanted a place where people can slow down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can take a moment for themselves here, enjoy a cake, enjoy food or just relax for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chess will stay at the heart of it, but Constantine said taking over the caf\u00e9 was about more than starting a business, saying he had reached a stage in life where he wanted to do something positive for others and give something back to the community.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cYou reach a point in your life where you want to bring something to people, help others and improve society.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people say one person can\u2019t make a difference, but I think if everyone thinks the opposite, that they can make a small difference, then there will be a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf everyone thinks like that, we can build a better community and a better social life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A construction worker who spent years playing chess at a caf\u00e9 loved it so much that he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,99,6016,9436,20049,306685,85,221644],"class_list":{"0":"post-633168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-consumer","13":"tag-food-and-drink","14":"tag-human-interest","15":"tag-maidstone","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-whats-on-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}