The tapping of laptop keys is a sound which has come to characterise cafés such as Starbucks, as freelance workers and entrepreneurs settle themselves in these spaces as an alternative to forking out high prices for their own offices. But accountant Mark Hooper is turning this culture on its head.
Mr Hooper has brought the growing craze of co-working, which has become massive in America, to Cardiff as an alternative to working alone in cafés.
Indycube is a concept Mr Hooper has been developing for the past five years, but the space itself has been situated in the ITV media centre at Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff, for the past six months.

Lilo Grill House
City Road, Cardiff
*****
A smoky haze hangs, heavily laden with the aromas of garlic and the chargrill stove in the Cardiff’s Lilo Grill House. The Lebanese restaurant on City Road has a reputation for its delicious, tender shish and friendly atmosphere. Lebanese food pretty much coins everything from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, and can be a winner due to its simplistic approach of skewered meats, flatbread and fresh flavours of lemon juice and cracked black pepper.
Perhaps one of the most enticing smells around is that of meat, …

St Patrick’s Day celebrations began early in Cardiff city centre as world champion Irish dancers took to the streets with staff from O’Neill’s pub to raise money for local Welsh charity LATCH.
Cardiff is one of four cities taking part in the national “Join the Jig” campaign, which is one of many fundraising activities taking place across the 62 O’Neill’s pubs in the UK in the run up to St Patrick’s Day on Wednesday.

City life can be stressful and exhausting. The daily nine to five work routine can wear anyone out, so if life’s pressures are getting too much, we have picked out two Welsh holiday retreats for you to get out of Cardiff and away from it all.

Heartspring (www.heartspring.co.uk) retreat in Llansteffan, Carmarthen, is in the heart of the Welsh countryside and set among acres of stunning coastal scenery. It provides nurturing mini-breaks to escape the hustle and bustle of urban life and has everything you could possibly want to reconnect with your inner self and relax.

Musing on “How we came to live in unforgiving despair,” the incomparable stylings of Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip effortlessly produce the thought-provoking social commentary many have failed to elucidate.

Entering the large, over-polished restaurant in Cardiff’s Brewery Quarter, the impossibly white linen and delicate floral displays might make you think you had entered an art gallery instead of an eatery.

Thai Edge is the epitome of contemporary oriental design. It looks flawless, and even if the atmosphere is slightly pretentious, the food lives up to the high price tag.

If you have only ever thought of Lebanese food in the context of strip-lit, sticky-floored kebab shops, the warm and welcoming Mina Restaurant and Cafe Bar will make you think again. Houmous and falafel are familiar names, but Mina, which has been running in the heart of Cathays since 1990, goes far beyond those to produce a huge range of dishes from this often-overlooked region.
For a Tuesday night, it was comfortably busy, with a broader range of customers than its student-ville location might suggest. Red-painted walls and glowing candles helped …

Inside the 17th century smithy, a blacksmith hammered away at a strip of metal glowing from the heat of the forge. Sparks flew off the hot iron as a hinge slowly took shape beneath the soot-darkened beams – and Cheryl Cole stared out from a copy of the day’s Metro nestled in the corner.
The mix of eras is typical of the modern, hands-on approach of St Fagans National History Museum, Wales’s most popular tourist destination.
Founded in 1948, the open air museum is set in the grounds of St Fagans castle …

Independent businesses in Cardiff are fearing for the future after the closure of a number of restaurants and bars in recent weeks, despite the Welsh Assembly claiming it has taking steps to reduce business rates to help retailers in the area.
Two businesses in the heart of Cardiff Bay have been forced to close their doors in the last few weeks, along with the closure of The Point, a popular music venue, before Christmas, and there is fear among the local community that more will follow.

Madame Fromage is the kind of restaurant a small, malicious part of you doesn’t want to live up to the hype. Homemade pies, locally-sourced food, a deli you can drool over as you wait for your lunch to be prepared – it ticks too many boxes.

BRINGING back the revival of Michael Blakemore’s period-set production of the pulsating thriller Tosca for a second year, Welsh National Opera could be accused of short-changing the audience. But no one will feel out-of-pocket after this faithful and traditional staging of Puccini’s popular opera.
Blakemore’s production is still enthralling almost 20 years after it was first staged. One wonders how musicologist Joseph Kerman could have dismissed one of the world’s most popular operas as a “shabby little shocker”. This little gem in WNO’s repertoire is a veritable treat.
Celebrated prima donna Tosca …

Fans of TV show Torchwood, who set up a shrine to one of its lead characters, have unveiled two plaques to thank people for the support of their campaign.

Joanna Bibey presents a plaque to Lee Simmonds, of Mermaid Quay
A group of fans began an internet campaign to reinstate character Ianto Jones, played by Welsh actor Gareth David-Lloyd, after he was killed-off during season four by writer Russell T Davies.

The Schiavo family are offering home made Sicilian food at great prices. Inside, there are a handful of solid wooden tables, a bar along the window for Sunday’s peoplewatchers and Italian music playing.

After it was announced as one of Wales’s top restaurants last year, Cardiff’s prime Indian eatery Mint and Mustard is preceded by its reputation.

But those diners expecting the restaurant in Whitchurch Road, Gabalfa, to have its head in the clouds and away from ordinary visitors will be happily proved wrong.

American football’s showpiece event, the Superbowl, is always an ostentatious spectacle; and proof, if it was needed, American sport is almost peripheral to the commercial interests of everyone else involved — other than the two teams.
But even though it is a bloated and hyperbolic event, all the peripheral grandstanding does give the event an aura which makes it one of the highlights of the sporting year. Although the timing of games is prohibitive to British audiences, the NFL is growing in this country.
On Sunday, Cardiff’s Hard Rock Café stayed open …

LOCAL residents are “up in arms” about plans to hold two major concerts in a 10-day period at Cardiff City Stadium this summer.

Welsh band Stereophonics are playing a sell-out show in the 32,000 seater venue on June 5, while an announcement about the act or date for the second show has not yet been made.

But Canton councillor Ramesh Patel has accused Cardiff City football club of “moving the goalposts” on an agreement not to hold concerts at the Leckwith Road ground.

Beer festivals still seem the last preserve of the alpha male, the heady scent of hops in the air, burly arms pressed together, men eager to get a taste of the latest ale with its suitably odd name. Women enter at their peril, or gather shivering outside the tent waiting to pick their errant beer-expert up off the floor at closing time.
Of course it’s an exaggerated picture, but walking into one of these bastions of masculinity as a woman can still turn heads. Not so at the NosDa beer festival …

AS DARKNESS fell, mist crept through Llandaff cemetery and a shiver ran through the spines of the gathered crowd. Chilled breath hovered over the stone graves as Jim Cowan began his tale. By day, Llandaff is a delightful village, just outside of Cardiff city centre. By night, however, the moon rises high, the streets are silent and it is the setting of the Llandaff Ghost Walk.
Brave souls are invited to join a group walk through the grounds of Llandaff Cathedral pausing every now and again to listen to tales of …

Some lighter goings-on in Cardiff this week.

A Cardiff bar is planning to extend its opening hours until 1.30am.

Mr Smith’s, on Woodville Road, Cathays, is currently open until 12am on weekdays and 12.30am on Fridays and Saturdays but they want to be open for an extra hour every evening.