Carmarthen11 Mansel Street
Ten years.
One night a week.
Let’s find out.
The Warren closed in September 2025. This autumn, ten years after it opened, it opens again for one evening a week until Christmas. Not a reopening. A test of what this building could be next, and an honest question about whether enough people want it.
Ten years since a shuttered unit on Mansel Street became a restaurant the town put its own money into.
Good Food Guide Top 100 every year from 2019 to 2025. BBC Community Food Champion, 2024. Closed in September 2025, because one person cannot carry a building on their own for a decade.
What this isPlainly
A pilot, not a plan.
The dream was never to reopen as another restaurant. It was to find out whether this building could become something that genuinely serves the town. Nobody knows whether that is possible, and the only honest way to find out is to try it small, in public, and then say what happened.
So: a series of dinners, one evening a week from September to Christmas. Pre-booked only. Some places priced normally, some pay what you can afford To confirm , funded by the people who choose to pay a bit more. A room that costs what it costs, and says so out loud.
The risk is Deri’s and nobody else’s. Not a charity’s, not another community group’s, and not yours. That was a deliberate choice: asking an organisation other people depend on to carry this would have been the wrong way round.
It may lead to nothing. It may be the start of something much bigger. Both of those are real answers, and finding out costs one autumn.
The shape of itStart to finish
One night a week, and then a decision.
Every night has to pay for itself before it happens. If one does not, it does not run. That single rule is what stops this becoming the thing that closed the restaurant the first time.
- First The night itself Once a cook and a front of house lead are in place. Ten years since the doors opened in 2016, so the autumn would be a fitting time.
- Then Weekly The same day each week, once the first one has taught us something. Which day is still open.
- Through Autumn Darker nights. The room has always done its best work in winter.
- December To Christmas The last of the pilot, and then everyone decides together.
The night of the week is not fixed yet To confirm . It will be the same night every week once it is, so it can become a habit rather than an event you have to keep noticing.
The first nightSeventy seats
The first night is the tenth birthday.
Saturday 12 September, ten years on from opening. Rob at the Ceridwen Centre has been asked to cook it. One set menu, 70 seats, pre-booked only, no walk-ins. Pay what you can afford: four ways to take a seat, and the room will not know which one you chose.
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Supported Free
10 seats
No means test, no questions, no marker on the table. Paid for by the seats below. If money is the reason you would not come, this is the one for you.
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Cost price £25
What the night actually costs to put on, per head. No margin in it. If that is where you are, take it and enjoy it.
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Standard £40
50 seats
The full price. It covers your dinner and it keeps the lights on.
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Pay it forward £65
10 seats
Your dinner and somebody else’s. This is what funds the supported seats, and there is no version of the night that works without it.
Every price on this page is still being decided To confirm . The shape is his: roughly ten seats free, fifty at the standard price, and ten paying forward to cover the free ones.
Booking opens when four things are true: the accountant has confirmed in writing that advance ticket money is fine, the date is fixed, the kitchen and front of house leads are in place, and the food business registration is confirmed. Three of the four are days away.
The other six daysOpen to ideas
Got something this building could do?
One evening a week is one evening a week. The rest of the time there is a kitchen, a dining room, a bar and an upstairs sitting empty in the middle of town. If you run something that needs a room, tell us what you would do with it.
- A yoga or movement class in the mornings
- A pop-up or supper club on a night that is not ours
- A workshop, a class, a rehearsal, a repair café
- A meeting room for a group that cannot afford one
- Something nobody has thought of yet
This is a request for ideas, not a booking form, and not an offer of a lease or a tenancy. Anything that happened would need its own conversation about insurance, licensing and terms. Tell us the idea first and we will work out together whether it can be done.