THE OWNERS of an established motorcycle business have taken over running a popular cafe in West Bay.

Julian and Sue Smith, owners of Helmet City, are now running the Ellipse Cafe next door, under the new name of the Windy Corner Cafe. The new project is being managed by their daughter Kirsty, who has experience in the industry.

The owners hope to give the premises more of a cafe feel when they carry out a full refurbishment in February. Julian is pleased with the feedback he has already received from customers after opening last week.

"A lot of our customers would come in the cafe to have a bite to eat, and it would always have a fantastic reputation for coffee - which we hope to carry on," he said.

"The refit will including removing the high bar to give it more of a cafe feel. We also want to introduce some soft seating to help everyone enjoy the wonderful view. This is a long-term project and there is a lot of work to do, but we are very pleased to have taken this on.

"We will put the same focus and dedication into this as we do with the bike shop. We do almost all of our trading face to face as we don't have a particularly big online presence, and we will bring that personal touch to the cafe.

"Obviously the tourist trade in the summer is vital, but we want to really appeal to local people who want reasonable prices and good customer service, and the view here is stunning."

The Windy Corner Cafe serves breakfast, lunch and snacks, and also offers a large children's menu and a range of hot and cold drinks.

Sue said: "We are also very dog friendly, as there is a very popular local dog-walking scene.

"In the future we will also hopefully have a space for local groups to help meetings or events. We're not sure how that will unfold at the moment, but especially during the winter period, we will only really be open during the day."

The new name for the cafe may seem obvious, given the exposed location. But Julian said it offered the perfect opportunity to link the cafe to his motorcycle passion.

"We wanted a link between the bikes and the cafe," he said. "We now have a physical link as you can enter the cafe directly from the shop.

"One of the famous corners at the Isle of Man TT is called the Windy Corner. Everyone who has been in has commented how windy it really is at this point, so it seemed like the perfect fit."