Archive: This feature covered Coda Vinyl Café’s opening in 2018. The café’s former address, 2 South Avenue, is now Happy Hearts Play Café.

Coda Vinyl Café opened in Buxton in 2018, combining a café with a record shop.

The joint venture by Neil McDonald and Barbara Morse combined food and music. After running Vinyl Planet in Macclesfield, the couple looked for a space in Buxton where they could bring together Barbara’s baking and cooking with a record shop.

Tables and record displays inside Coda Vinyl Café

Owner and former musician Neil, said, “We immediately thought Higher Buxton area was an ideal location – with the many independent businesses in this area, it reminded us of the Northern Quarter in Manchester with the vibe here with bars like The Ale Stop, South 16 and 53 Degrees North”.

Vinyl records displayed below the Coda sign

“And vinyl is back in a big way and we wanted to give people in Buxton somewhere to buy and access their favourite music records and artists of a wide genre”.

“Customers increasingly travel from all over to visit our record shop in Macclesfield and vinyl records are more and more sought after, as opposed to streaming and downloads – it’s great to bring back music as a physical entity”.

A record playing on a turntable at Coda

Neil and Barbara moved to the area in 2017 to be closer to their business in Macclesfield. Barbara said: “we noticed lots of development happening in the town and Buxton is just beautiful – the quirky buildings here and all the outdoors things on offer in the surrounding Peak District area – we felt the time was right to open the business”.

Customers browsing records at Coda Vinyl records arranged in a display crate

“We’re sourcing our food from local suppliers such as Mycocks, Pig & Pepper Bakery and Vintage Teas – all based in Buxton, which was really important to us to keep things local. And me personally being a fan of good quality fresh coffee – we use Buxton Roastery blends, also created here in the town”, said Barbara.

At opening, Coda sold new and used records and served breakfast snacks, paninis, cakes and specials.

The café advertised Wi-Fi, charging points and a dog-friendly welcome when this feature was written.

The café opened at 2 South Avenue, Buxton, SK17 6JZ.