The Barley Gastrobar opens in 'great reputation' Narberth
And they have chosen the name for their new venture as a salute to the building's original life as The Barley Mow pub.
'We want to keep the history of the building alive with a modern twist,' said Rhys, 26, who has worked in the catering industry for the past 10 years.
'I've always wanted to run my own business, so when this building came up for lease, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity.'
The Barley Gastrobar has been attracting 'support, smiles and amazing feedback' since it opened (Image: Barley Gastrobar) The Barley welcomed its first customers on Tuesday, August 5 – and one of the first through the doors was Narberth Urban county councillor Marc Tierney,
He posted on Facebook: 'Congratulations to Rhys and the team on the opening today of The Barley Gastrobar in Narberth.
'Narberth has a great reputation as a destination for food and drink. I stopped by earlier to offer my best wishes to Rhys, Alisha and Molly who were ready to welcome their first customers.
'It's so good to see a new local business opening on the High Street and I wish them well!
'The breakfast, lunch and dinner menus look great! I'm looking forward to a proper visit very soon!!'
Congratulations from Cllr Tierney to The Barley's Rhys Thomas, with bar manager Alisha and front-of-house Molly. (Image: Marc Tierney) The Barley is open every day apart from Monday, from 9.30am-3pm and 5pm-8.30pm, with the bar staying open later for customers to enjoy a drink – including some interesting cocktails – in the quirky surroundings.
The day gets underway with a full breakfast menu until noon with the Barley Hash – featuring cubed potatoes, diced chorizo and spinach – flagged up as the chef's favourite.
Then it's onto lunch – and how about a curried chickpea sandwich or a burger with Barley sauce?
Just a few of the tempting dishes being served up at The Barley. (Image: Barley Gastrobar)
Or maybe choose from Rhys's recommended menu option, the flavourful small plates selection, where you can choose three for £20 from the choice of a dozen individually-priced offerings.
Evening brings a tempting range of grills, burgers and seafood, and there's a children's menu all day.
Rhys and Jodie posted on Facebook: "We've been blown away by the support, smiles, and amazing feedback since opening — and we just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's dined with us so far!"
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Western Telegraph
11-08-2025
- Western Telegraph
The Barley Gastrobar opens in 'great reputation' Narberth
Chef Rhys Thomas and his girlfriend Jodie Dickinson are at the helm of The Barley Gastrobar in the town's Water Street. And they have chosen the name for their new venture as a salute to the building's original life as The Barley Mow pub. 'We want to keep the history of the building alive with a modern twist,' said Rhys, 26, who has worked in the catering industry for the past 10 years. 'I've always wanted to run my own business, so when this building came up for lease, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity.' The Barley Gastrobar has been attracting 'support, smiles and amazing feedback' since it opened (Image: Barley Gastrobar) The Barley welcomed its first customers on Tuesday, August 5 – and one of the first through the doors was Narberth Urban county councillor Marc Tierney, He posted on Facebook: 'Congratulations to Rhys and the team on the opening today of The Barley Gastrobar in Narberth. 'Narberth has a great reputation as a destination for food and drink. I stopped by earlier to offer my best wishes to Rhys, Alisha and Molly who were ready to welcome their first customers. 'It's so good to see a new local business opening on the High Street and I wish them well! 'The breakfast, lunch and dinner menus look great! I'm looking forward to a proper visit very soon!!' Congratulations from Cllr Tierney to The Barley's Rhys Thomas, with bar manager Alisha and front-of-house Molly. (Image: Marc Tierney) The Barley is open every day apart from Monday, from 9.30am-3pm and 5pm-8.30pm, with the bar staying open later for customers to enjoy a drink – including some interesting cocktails – in the quirky surroundings. The day gets underway with a full breakfast menu until noon with the Barley Hash – featuring cubed potatoes, diced chorizo and spinach – flagged up as the chef's favourite. Then it's onto lunch – and how about a curried chickpea sandwich or a burger with Barley sauce? Just a few of the tempting dishes being served up at The Barley. (Image: Barley Gastrobar) Or maybe choose from Rhys's recommended menu option, the flavourful small plates selection, where you can choose three for £20 from the choice of a dozen individually-priced offerings. Evening brings a tempting range of grills, burgers and seafood, and there's a children's menu all day. Rhys and Jodie posted on Facebook: "We've been blown away by the support, smiles, and amazing feedback since opening — and we just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's dined with us so far!"
Reuters
30-07-2025
- Reuters
Ukraine farming union flags rising barley exports to China
KYIV, July 30 (Reuters) - Ukraine has exported about 140,000 metric tons of barley to China so far in July and is likely to ship 350,000 to 400,000 tons in August, farming union UAC said on Wednesday. "For China, 500,000 to 550,000 tons of barley are contracted (for July-August). Another 350,000 to 400,000 tons still need to be shipped in August," UAC said in its weekly report. It said the total volume of barley contracted for export for July-August reached 770,000 tons. Ukrainian analyst Barva Invest said this month that Chinese companies contracted to buy up to 700,000 tons of the 2025 Ukrainian barley crop. Ukraine is a large barley producer and exporter and certified by Beijing to supply barley to the Chinese market. China was the main importer of Ukrainian barley in the 2023/24 season with an import volume of 702,000 tons, said Ukrainian grain traders union UGA.
The Independent
29-07-2025
- The Independent
Who wants to be a millionaire? 1 in 10 Americans already is but the status loses its luster
As a child, Heidi Barley watched her family pay for groceries with food stamps. As a college student, she dropped out because she couldn't afford tuition. In her twenties, already scraping by, she was forced to take a pay cut that shrunk her salary to just $34,000 a year. But this summer, the 41-year-old hit a milestone that long felt out of reach: She became a millionaire. A surging number of everyday Americans now boast a seven-figure net worth once the domain of celebrities and CEOs. But as the ranks of millionaires grow fatter, the significance of the status is shifting alongside perceptions of what it takes to be truly rich. ' Millionaire used to sound like Rich Uncle Pennybags in a top hat,' says Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, a wealth management firm in El Segundo, California. 'It's no longer a backstage pass to palatial estates and caviar bumps. It's the new mass-affluent middleweight class, financially secure but two zeros short of private-jet territory.' Inflation, ballooning home values and a decades-long push into stock markets by average investors have lifted millions into millionairehood. A June report from Swiss bank UBS found about one-tenth of American adults are members of the seven-digit club, with 1,000 freshly minted millionaires added daily last year. Thirty years ago, the IRS counted 1.6 million Americans with a net worth of $1 million or more. UBS — using data from the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks of countries around the globe — put the number at 23.8 million in the U.S. last year, a nearly 15-fold increase. The expanding ranks of millionaires come as the gulf between rich and poor widens. The richest 10% of Americans hold two-thirds of household wealth, according to the Federal Reserve, averaging $8.1 million each. The bottom 50% hold 3% of wealth, with an average of just $60,000 to their names. Federal Reserve data also shows there are differences by race. Asian people outpace white people in the U.S. in median wealth, while Black and Hispanic people trail in their net worth. Barley was working as a journalist when her newspaper ended its pension program and she got a lump-sum payout of about $5,000. A colleague convinced her to invest it in a retirement account, and ever since, she's stashed away whatever she could. The investments dipped at first during the Great Recession but eventually started growing. In time, she came to find catharsis in amassing savings, going home and checking her account balances when she had a tough day at work. Last month, after one such day, she realized the moment had come. 'Did you know that we're millionaires?' she asked her husband. 'Good job, honey,' Barley says he replied, unfazed. It brought no immediate change. Like many millionaires, much of her wealth is in long-term investments and her home, not easy-to-access cash. She still lives in her modest Orlando, Florida, house, socks away half her paycheck, fills the napkin holder with takeout napkins and lines trash cans with grocery bags. Still, Barley says it feels powerful to cross a threshold she never imagined reaching as a child. 'But it's not as glamorous as the ideas in your head,' she says. All wealth is relative. To thousandaires, $1 million is the stuff of dreams. To billionaires, it's a rounding error. Either way, it takes twice as much cash today to match the buying power of 30 years ago. A net worth of $1 million in 1995 is equivalent to about $2.1 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A seven-figure net worth is, to some, as outdated a yardstick as a six-figure salary. Nonetheless, 'millionaire' is peppered in everything from politics to popular music as shorthand for rich. 'It's a nice round number but it's a point in a longer journey,' says Dan Uden, a 41-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, who works in information technology and who hit the million-dollar mark last month. 'It definitely gives you some room to breathe.' No other country comes close to the U.S. in the sheer number of millionaires, though relative to population, UBS found Switzerland and Luxembourg had higher rates. Kenneth Carow, a finance professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, says commonalities emerge among today's millionaires. The vast majority own stocks and a home. Most live below their means. They value education and teach financial responsibility to their children. 'The dream of becoming a millionaire,' Carow says, 'has become more obtainable.' Jim Wang, 45, a software engineer-turned finance blogger from Fulton, Maryland, says even if hitting $1 million was essentially 'a non-event' for him and his wife, it still held weight for him as the son of immigrants who saved money by turning the heat off on winter nights. The private jets he envisioned as a kid may not have materialized at the million-dollar threshold, but he still sees it as a marker that brings a certain level of security. 'It's possible, even with a regular job,' he says. 'You just have to be diligent and consistent.' The resilience of financial markets and the ease of investing in broad-based, low-fee index funds has fueled the balances of many millionaires who don't earn massive salaries or inherit family fortunes. Among them is a burgeoning community of younger millionaires born out of the movement known as FIRE, for Financial Independence Retire Early. Jason Breck, 48, of Fishers, Indiana, embraced FIRE and reached the million-dollar mark nine years ago. He promptly quit his job in automotive marketing, where he generally earned around $60,000 a year but managed to stow away around 70% of his pay. Now, Breck and his wife spend several months a year traveling. Despite being retired, they continue to grow their balance by sticking to a tight budget and keeping expenses to $1,500 a month when they're in the U.S and a few hundred dollars more when they travel. Hitting their goal hasn't translated to luxury. There is no lawn crew to cut the grass, no Netflix or Amazon Prime, no Uber Eats. They fly economy. They drive a 2005 Toyota. 'It's not a golden ticket like it was in the past,' Breck says. 'For us, a million dollars buys us freedom and peace of mind. We're not yacht rich, but for us, we're time rich.' ___ Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ and
