'I think I’ve come to the wrong place': Life on the market that loses £250 every day just to stay open

Mustafa Kamara should be busy. His café is spotless, he has a huge menu at reasonable prices - full English for £6; lasagne, Bolognese, curries all for under £7.

Bravo Chef has 12 five-star reviews on Google, and 10 or so tables, all ready to go. But he isn’t. On a Monday lunchtime, there was just one person dining.

“I used to have 15, 16 covers a day, I used to have staff”, he tells the M.E.N. “Everyone is gone, it’s only me and my cousin now. There’s nobody left.”

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His cafe is located inside Gorton Market. There are a few other food outlets, and some are faring a little better. At Heaven Italian café, there was hardly a spare seat by 1pm.

But Bravo Chef is located inside a corner unit, where all the neighbouring shops are shuttered, their businesses having closed or moved away. It’s quiet, footfall is scarce, and Mustafa says he knows why.

“The service charge is killing us,” he said.

Traders at the market tell the MEN they have been hit by a number of setbacks in recent years. The cost-of-living crisis and increases in energy bills forced the beloved Sivoris cafe to close last February. It had served the people of Gorton for nearly 50 years.

“My customer base is the same, but the overheads are too high,” explained owner Pete at the time.

In May, for some the struggle was compounded with the announcement that service charges at the market were increasing. Since then, at least two businesses have left altogether – one, Jealous Shoes, was opposite Mustafa’s café. Others have had to downsize to stay afloat, as the service charge is calculated according to square footage of units.

Mustafa is an experienced chef, having worked for over 20 years in