Update Blog: Happy Piranha Café and Geek Club Project in Truro

If you've haven't heard the news already... we're going on an adventure next door... and it's going to take a while!

One part will be a themed café, the other will be space for gaming, clubs and  other such groups - whatever you do to get together! 

We'll use this blog to keep you informed of how the project is going.

What's happening?

We're expanding our horizons from our little store at the top of Pydar street in Truro, Cornwall (the black one on the left in the image above) to include the much larger building next door.

One half will be space for gaming, clubs and groups, with a mix of drop-in and bookable space, the other will be a café. We hope to be the home of some cool clubs and possibly offer some membership benefits in the future too.

We want this to be a space that clubs, groups and individuals can enjoy alike, so are keen to know how people would like to see it used.

We're going to theme some of the rooms to make them a fun place to hang out, meet up and play too.

If you're nearby and looking to organise or run any leagues or clubs; from chess to board games, DnD to cosplay, or knitting to quizzing to cribbage, we'd be interested to hear your ideas, so that we can hit the ground running with things for you to do.

What is started as...

 Here's one half.

Here's the other.

And here's what will be the principal function room upstairs.

As you can see, we've got our work cut out! A lot needs doing, but we're excited to have this blank canvas to work with. 

Progress so far...

Here's what we've been up to so far, with the most current progress first.

We've Painted Some Stuff

As well as adding some colour to the walls we've also started doing some more interesting painting, such as some detailing on the entryway to the space room and the Aztec arch.

We've Illuminated some progress

Lighting has been added to the Japanese and Medieval areas which are coming along nicely!

We've Tinkered with the Tavern

The Tavern is nearing competition with just a few little bits and bobs to add. The backlit window is in place, varnishing complete, walls textured painted and duelling pistols in place. We've got a nautical name in the works too.

We've Been Mopping up a Flood...

Just when we thought we couldn't get setback anymore, someone with a very bad taste in beer decided to jam a can of Tennent's extra strong lager down a local drain, which ended up causing a flood directly under us. 

Luckily, our legend plumber Steve was able to lend a helping hand to find the problem, though we did have to relay all the floor we just had put down. Big thanks to the floor guys for the extra help!

We've Begun Jazzing up the Japan Area and Saved a Door.

The Tori Gate has been painted, the floor is down and we've begun adding some of the bamboo accents to the walls in our area inspired by Japan.

We also managed to find this old Chapel door, which once used to belong a a Chapel nearby in Newquay. It shall get a new lease of life in our medieval themed area!

We've Started Touching up the Tavern

We've finished the wood panelling in the Tavern, added the window that we made and started adding a textured finish to the upper half of the walls to add a more rustic feel.

We've Painted Pillars and Put in Panels

We've been reusing more reclaimed pallet wood to panel the inside of our Tavern room and have also painted this pillar by the Japanese themed area with a cool red and white wave pattern.

We've Crafted Wonderful Windows

We've been working on some windows for the Medieval inspired area. The first is inspired by a carriage window, using layers of laser cut wood and the other a stained glass church style one utilising a sheet of acrylic.

We've been making the Medieval 

We've been working on the Medieval / Viking inspired section at the front of the building, fixing the cool reclaimed church pews in place, and re-using some of the lovely aged old loft beams to add some character!

We added sci-fi structure

We've started work on the left side of the building which will be sci-fi spaceship themed table space.

We've started by putting some frames around the pillars and beams to create the foundations for our space ship interior!

Tori, tills and tabletops 

We continued work on the main counter area and the Japan inspired seating area, including adding a Tori gate inspired entrance

We also made progress on the Piranha Pop Up area; laying some lino, fitting the cupboards and worktops and constructing the service counter.

We pieced together a pop-up

We've been working on the little area at the front of the building. This small section of the project will open early as ‘Piranha Popup’ - a little multifunctional space that will change with the seasons.

In summer, you’ll be able to drop by for takeaway Cornish ice cream, milkshakes, coffee and bubble tea. At Christmas time it will be a grotto full of decorations and in between, who knows!

We built the foundations of a tea house

We constructed the raised floor seating area that will form part of our café section inspired by Japan, where you'll be able to sit in a comfy floor seating and imagine you're in your very own Japanese tea house.

We made toilets and tills

We built a new entranceway/walkway to the toilets, so that the door isn't opposite the counter. We've also started to create the first bit of the till area too!

We added a new lick of paint outside

We've started to make the front of the building look a bit more fresh by giving it a bit of a power wash and a new first coat of paint.

We're sure the seagulls will defile it before we open, but we'll give it a second coat before then.

We got dusty plasterboarding

We've been doing the finickity job of plasterboarding parts of the front of the building and the ceiling for protection and to give some fresh surfaces to decorate.

Lots of annoying angles to work out here, so we're glad this bit is done! 

We experienced true level

As the front of the floor is sloped, we've put in a new level floor so that you don't all slide off your seats. As you can see, Josh has been experiencing true level (If you watched that Rick and Morty episode, you'll know what that's about)

We partitioned things

After a bit of delays with builders, lockdowns and Christmas stuff, we're finally back at it with some noticeable change!

We've started splitting up what will be the café and gaming/function space by adding some partitions. The left of the building will be table space for gaming, clubs and other such stuff (we're thinking of going with a sci-fi/space ship theme there).

The right will be a mixture of themed café space (we've got ideas of Viking, medieval and oriental inspired for this side. 

We reclaimed some pew pew pews!

We were lucky enough to pick up some lovely pews from an old Methodist church that is going to be redeveloped.

With a little bit of care and creativity, we're looking forward to turning these into some cool looking (and comfy) booths for part of the downstairs café area!

We uncovered a little bit of History

Here’s to hoping we can add our own little mark the to the history of Pydar street too.

We welcomed the scaffolders

Now it really looks like something's happening! The scaffolding has arrived along with the team at AA scaffolding to put it up.

This will be used to help get up high and fix any parts in the roof that aren't quite water tight. We wouldn't want any of our geeky activities getting dripped on!

The sun seems to have given us it's blessing today, it obviously approves of gaming and fun.

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We earmarked an area for the tavern

It may look like a pile of rubble at the moment (that's because it is), but a lot of you expressed the want for a tavern themed room to play your DnD campaigns in.

We've earmarked this cosy nook, which used to be a set of changing rooms in the downstairs of the building, as a potential place.

There's a bit of sweeping up to do before we invite our first punters in though. It seems the previous builders left all their rubbish behind the walls!

Hoping it will be a cool space for DnD and other TTRPG groups to book!

We brought out the big boys tools

We're running out of innuendos for update headings now so this may be the last of those.

Recently Happy Piranha Team member Matt (who also makes the glass art you can find in store), has been using his crafty hands for less delicate matters - to help uncover the original fireplace in the principal function room.

As well as bringing the Floo Network to Cornwall, we think reinstating this original feature will help give this room that epic edge. If you check out the picture below, there's an interesting slate vein that runs through the brickwork too.

We gave the windows some love

Since they've been sitting unused for a while, some of the wooden windows are in need of love and care. We've taken them out to make repairs and give them a fresh coat of paint.

We got hot and steamy

We've also stripped off the horrible textured wall paper using a steamer to help highlight the decorative cornice work around the ceiling.

We've got some cool ideas for this ceiling...

We became strippers for a week

We're working in what will be the principal function room to try and bring out the best in it's period features and turn it into somewhere epic to hang out.

Underneath the layers of white paint, there's some pretty cool woodwork that we want to show off in its original glory. 

It's slow work, but we think it's worth it!

Keep up to date

We'll update here as work progresses. Feel free to keep checking back, but we'll make sure to post when we make updates on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

Also, if you have any fun ideas for how this space could be used, let us know! While we can't promise anything, we're keen to collect ideas for how you'd like to use this space and what it may need to do so, so that we can incorporate some of it into the project as we go.