The Penmaenmawr branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A55.
The Little Chef first opened at a service station (known as Orme View) in 1967 near the coast of North Wales just outside of Colwyn Bay & Llandudno. It was the sixteenth restaurant to open out of the first twenty-five, opening under the ownership of Trusthouse. The building it was housed in was an early example of a prefabricated Little Chef building - dating from the 1960s.
The Little Chef lasted for more than 35 years, finally closing in early 2007 as a part of the sale to RCapital. Only a few years before closure, there were plans to build a Travelodge alongside the restaurant, but these were later dropped. Plans for a motel by LSP Motors were also dropped many years beforehand.
The building was thoroughly refurbished and became a new farm shop and cafe known as the 'Puffin', which opened in July 2014 and shares its name with the nearby roundabout. The original Little Chef car park remained - even retaining it's "Mini Milk" lights.
Curiously, up until 2012, a Little Chef signpost had also partly remained near the exit of the services. It showed that the next Little Chef was 10 miles away in Bangor, which continued to trade for many more years, and displayed the logos of the Little Chef and its onsite Burger King & Travelodge.
The Puffin farm shop and cafe closed in 2016, blaming roadworks for the drop in trade. However, not all was lost as the farm shop later re-opened in 2017. The nearby bus stop was also removed since it became unnecessary to have a bus stop on the A55. A Revolution self-service launderette was installed in the car park in 2018.
In 2019 the Shell filling station closed briefly for a remodel, which included the adjustment of the height of the canopy from 4.3m to 4.6m, therefore making it more accessible for HGVs. It later re-opened that same year.
The Puffin farm shop closed for the second time in November 2019 - this time, forever. This resulted with the building being derelict again, and nothing has ever vacated the building as of 2025. What's more confusing is that the shop signs still remain intact, the windows remain uncovered and a lot of DNA still remain inside, making the farm shop and cafe look like as though it is still open. Even a sign directing customers to the car park near the exit of the services still remains to this day. The self-service launderette was also removed, despite being there for just over a year (unlike many others in the UK which have operated for a few more years, and most of which are still in operation to this day).
