KHIONE

Founder of Khione, Gloria

Bringing a little Sicilian hospitality to Duke Street Arcade 

At Khione in Duke Street Arcade, a visit to a delicatessen can become something rather more personal. Behind its selection of Sicilian produce and Italian specialities is an ambition to create a welcoming space where people can linger, talk and feel, for a little while, as though they have been invited into someone's home. 

The independent café and deli brings the flavours of Sicily to the centre of Cardiff, with carefully sourced Italian food, specialist ingredients and a tucked-away upstairs seating area. For its founder, Gloria, the choice of a historic arcade was about much more than location. 

“I chose to open this business in the arcades because they represent tradition. This old building is connected to the past, and everything about Khione is about the past and tradition.” 

Originally from Sicily, Gloria sees unexpected connections between Welsh and Sicilian culture, particularly the importance of language, heritage and local identity. Both places have strong regional identities and a determination to preserve their distinctive traditions. 

Those parallels made Cardiff's historic arcades feel like an appropriate home for a business rooted in Sicilian food culture, even thousands of miles from where its products originate. 

Khione specialises in ingredients and recipes that customers might struggle to find in a conventional supermarket. Its shelves offer a taste of Sicily through carefully selected products, including traditional specialities and organic ingredients, while its café menu gives visitors an opportunity to experience those flavours for themselves. 

For Gloria, however, the business is about more than importing and selling food. It's about helping customers understand the traditions, producers and stories behind what they're buying. But that commitment is not always straightforward. Sourcing specialist products takes time and effort, while communicating the difference between something produced with care and its mass-produced equivalent can be a challenge. 

Gloria remembers a conversation with a longstanding customer who recognised just how hard she was working to champion those products. His encouragement stayed with her, reminding her that even when progress feels slow, there are people who understand and appreciate what Khione is trying to achieve. 

And the customers themselves are as varied as the products on the shelves. Some arrive in search of a particular Italian ingredient or a familiar recipe from home. Others discover Khione while exploring the arcades, attending an event at Cardiff Castle or visiting the city for a rugby match. 

Gloria welcomes people of different ages and nationalities, something she sees as particularly fitting for a business inspired by Sicily, an island whose food and traditions have been shaped by centuries of cultural exchange. But perhaps the most personal expression of her vision for Khione is something visitors might not immediately notice. 

Above the deli is an upstairs seating area where customers can settle in with food or a drink, away from the bustle of the city centre. It's a space designed to recreate the easy hospitality of visiting a friend's home. “The idea was to share our living room,” Gloria explains. 

In Italy, she says, spending an evening at someone's house is a familiar part of social life. She wanted to bring some of that same feeling to Cardiff: somewhere people could relax, spend time together and feel genuinely welcome. 

Not everyone realises the space exists. Despite signs and menus advertising the café, visitors sometimes assume Khione is simply a shop. 

Gloria laughs that customers have described it as a hidden gem, although she'd quite like it to be “a bit less hidden”. 

The arcade itself adds to that sense of discovery. Just across from Cardiff Castle, Duke Street Arcade sits close to some of the city's busiest attractions, yet its sheltered walkways and historic surroundings offer a more relaxed atmosphere. 

For Gloria, it even recalls the galleries and outdoor café spaces found in parts of Italy and France, where people can sit, watch the world go by and take time for themselves. It's another connection between her Sicilian roots and her adopted city, and one that reinforces why Khione feels at home here. 

But while the architecture and atmosphere first attracted Gloria to the arcades, it's their independent businesses that she believes give them their real value. “If every city only has the big chains, every city will become the same. There is no personality,” she says. 

Cardiff's arcades offer something different: opportunities to discover unfamiliar products, meet passionate business owners and experience something that couldn't simply be replicated on any high street. 

Having witnessed the changes in Cardiff city centre since arriving in Wales, including the difficult period following the pandemic, Gloria hopes the arcades will continue to be places where independent businesses and communities can flourish. 

“I hope that the fact that people want to stick together, to be part of a community – I hope that never changes.” 

She also hopes future generations will continue to value the experiences that happen away from screens, particularly the opportunities to meet people, learn from them and discover something new. 

“I hope the next generation discovers the world through real life, real people and real experiences. So much is online now, but when you come into an independent business, you meet someone who's passionate about what they do, who can share their knowledge and their stories with you.” 

It's a sentiment that captures what Gloria is trying to create at Khione. 

By bringing Sicilian flavours, traditions and hospitality into one of Cardiff's historic arcades, she's doing more than introducing customers to the food of her homeland. She's creating another place where the city's own stories, friendships and connections can develop.