The East Hampshire owners of a café where it’s always midday have celebrated 20 years in Petersfield.

Paresh and Jaineeta Pandya have served up countless breakfasts and lovely lunches since Café Mezzo opened in the town centre on July 19, 2006.

But although two decades have passed, the couple from Clanfield still have a latte love for the job and the people they serve at their High Street ‘brunch joint’.

“It’s a very social High Street,” said Paresh, who previously ran a pasta-pizza eatery in the much-missed food court in The Cascades shopping centre in Portsmouth.

“So many customers have become friends over time and we’ve had people coming here from the first day we opened. We’ve seen children grow up – people who came in here as babies now have beards and go to university!

“The town has changed but we love being part of it.”

The Post can relate, as our roving reporter and his colleagues bought many a bacon sarnie when we had an office next door.

The couple remember the passing of the Olympic Torch in 2012 as a highlight, and Covid being the opposite, while the likes of Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Cara Delevingne and the Bonham-Carters have all stopped by for a cuppa over the years.

“We’ve got a lot of memories but those 20 years have gone very quickly – there’s been a few ups and downs but it’s like that everywhere,” said Paresh, adding the name ‘mezzo’ was chosen because it means ‘midday’ in Italian and is easy to remember.

Do they see themselves serving up their Mezzo breakfasts and freshly squeezed orange juice in 2046?

“That would take me beyond my 70s so it’s a big ask, but we’ll carry on as long as we can,” said Jaineeta, adding: “We’re quite happy here.”