Bormla Café Clarifies Festive Glasshouses Are Temporary After Arnold Cassola Warns Of ‘Takeover’
After being accused by independent MEP candidate Arnold Cassola of “taking over” public steps in Bormla with festive glasshouses, a café has clarified that their installations were only ever meant to be temporary.
Writing under Cassola’s post, DATE Art Café owner Ivan Zammit said the glasshouses were intended as a Winter Wonderland-type installation during a cold and windy period when people find it hard to sit and have a drink outside.
He said they presented this concept to the local council over a year ago and gained their approval with the understanding that the glasshouses would be temporary.
“We do not attempt to make the stairs ours,” he said.
“We clean the area every day and we have been part of the group of volunteers who picked up several buckets of syringes from the area a couple of years ago.”
“We have definitely made the area more popular, but we do not call the area ours. We just know from daily experience that nobody visits this area when it’s cold and rainy.”
He added that the café has made a number of houses available to be booked by charity community groups for workshops and other events free of charge.
“We’re simply a young and positive business trying to make the place more beautiful and at the same time trying to survive winter and keep all our team in gainful employment throughout the difficult winter,” he said.
“We know, from the past two years, that nobody comes to ‘enjoy’ the public space when it’s raining, whereas now the place is more enjoyable due to this temporary installation and we’ve witnessed very enjoyable evenings.”
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DATE Art Café, which promotes itself as an ideal spot for romantic and friendly dates, recently featured in a CNN article about Malta, which said the outlet is an ideal choice to enjoy a coffee while enjoying a waterfront view.
Have you ever been to DATE Art Café?
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