Popular Maidenhead cafe and soft play hopes to 'cement' late owner's legacy

The owners of a popular community café in Ockwells Park are ‘cementing’ their brother’s legacy with a newly unveiled revamp.

Rav Bola and his wife Kam reopened Juniors Café and Soft Play on Wednesday after the children’s play area was given a makeover earlier this month.

The venue is named after Rav’s brother and the original owner, Harpaul ‘Junior’ Singh Bola who, with their father Kundan, had intended to create a community space inspired by the independent coffee shops he saw in Shoreditch.

The café was ready to open in January 2021 but Junior suffered a short illness after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and passed away in March of that year at the age of 34.

Traumatised by the loss, the café remained closed while his family grieved but Rav and Kam soon decided to reopen the café in Junior’s name and to pay ‘tribute to his legacy’.

Rav said: “It’s [been] incredible. We thought it was important because he’d be so proud now. This is his business, it still is his business and he’d be here and be the one speaking. It’s bittersweet.

“The front-of-house is exactly how Junior wanted it, but the back was always very dated and needed a change.”

Rav said renovating the soft play area had taken two years of ‘meticulous’ planning and juggling around their full-time jobs.

“We’re so thrilled with how everything now looks,” he added.

“For us, it’s not just about the coffee shop and the soft play area – it’s about enabling us to cement Junior’s legacy. It feels good to say, ‘We’re at Junior’s’ and hear other people say, ‘Oh, we went to Junior’s’.

“Junior had a massive heart. He would always meet you with a big grin on his face, with open doors and the first thing he would say is ‘What would you like to drink?’

“He was so hospitable so this fits in with him.”

With no previous experience running a café, Kam said the experience has been a ‘rollercoaster’, adding:

“It wasn’t part of the plan to be involved. We’ve adopted [the café] so we wanted to make sure we got it right and to provide a positive space for the community.

“We owe immense gratitude to our incredible staff and we have a great management team, particularly Mary and Sarah, who both take a lot of weight off our shoulders and we couldn’t be doing it without them.

“A special mention to our loyal customers who are like family, and our fantastic local small business suppliers – Epic Brownies, Get Whisked Away, It’s Flour Power, Dublicious and Balloonology by Priya. Together, they all make Juniors what it is and contribute to supporting us in realising our vision.”

Rav added: “We’re still managing the grief and loss. When we come here, we feel it helps us manage our grief and we give that avenue to others by speaking to regulars about [their] problems so they’ve got someone to listen to them.”

Rav said his father had been ‘instrumental’ and ‘very hands-on’ in re-establishing the café and Kundan cut the ribbon to unveil the new soft play area on Wednesday.

In a speech, Kundan said: “Thank you everyone for the support. I can’t explain it. The groups, the mums, the kids and all the community – without that this wouldn’t have been possible. It means a lot to us.”

Manager Mary Smith said the launch was a ‘special occasion’ that she felt ‘proud’ to be part of, adding: “Having all the family, friends and customers there to be part of the celebration was wonderful and it meant so much seeing the local community come together to share this special day.”