Monkey Puzzle opened on Thame's Upper High Street on 16 March 2023, at number 18, as an independent coffee shop. It bakes almost all of its cakes and pastries on the premises, alongside a changing range of savoury food, and serves espresso-based coffee to sit in or take away. Opening hours run 8am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday, 8am to 7pm Friday and Saturday, and 9am to 5pm Sunday, giving it later evening hours than most of the town's other cafes. The shop takes its name, and its monkey puzzle tree branding, from the distinctive conifer rather than any franchise connection, and it operates as a single site rather than a chain. It has become a venue on the Thame Art Crawl trail and hosts an afternoon tea service alongside its regular counter menu. As one of the newer independent food businesses on the Upper High Street, it sits among a cluster of small, individually owned shops rather than national chains.
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