London's red telephone boxes are quickly disappearing from the capital's streets. But married business partners Umar Khalid and Alona Guerra have found an innovative way to revive one defunct phone box: by selling coffee out of it.
Their coffee shop, Kape Barako, opened on Hampstead High Street on February 6.
The unconventional street cafe, named after the Philippines' coffee capital Barako, sells a variety of coffee drinks as well as tea, hot chocolate, and even a chai latte. It also offers pies, pasties, pastries, and more.
"I always wanted to open my own coffee shop," Khalid, who previously worked as an accountancy assistant for a distributor of health products, told Business Insider.
He rents the phone box from the Brighton-based Red Kiosk Company, which bought the pay phone from BT, and has signed a three-year lease.
Khalid chose to start the business in a phone box because, he said, London's telephone boxes are "an iconic thing" and "they were going to remove them."
So far, Kape Barako has proved to be popular. While Khalid talked to Business Insider, he served a sprinkling of customers he already knew, greeting them cheerfully as he handed them their morning coffee. Meanwhile, some people walking past would often stop to peer into the phone box.
Khalid grew up in Pakistan, and Guerra is from the Philippines; the pair met on the 94 bus in 2005, a year after they moved to London. Khalid said his friends pushed him in front of Guerra after he told them, "She's the one." They married in 2010, and live in Golders Green.
Khalid works on the stall every day, while Guerra helps out when she's not working at her other job, at Waitrose. "We support each other all the time," he said.
He told Business Insider that he plans to expand the business, and pointed to a nearby telephone box, out of which he said he hopes to sell ice creams in the summer. Khalid said he would need to hire extra staff, but would "have to see how it goes" first.
Kape Barako is located outside of Natwest bank at 25 Hampstead High Street, and is open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: A chef demonstrates the surprisingly easy way to make a perfect soufflé