New cosy cafe opens in Blackpool soon.
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00:00So, could you tell me your full name and your position here at the Cozy Café?
00:12Okay, well I'm Nick Evans and I'm one of the co-owners here. There's four of us, two
00:20sets of partners. We've sort of known each other for about five, six years, but it's
00:26the first time we've actually worked together, in partnership.
00:32How do you all know each other?
00:34Well, they used to be customers of ours when we had a café down in Wiltshire and they
00:41moved up here. We've always loved Blackburn. We've had a business in Leyton, Mum's Café,
00:50and we moved down south because my mother was unwell, just to be closer to her, when
00:56we unfortunately lost her a few years back. We moved back, and the plan was always to
01:00move back to Blackpool. It's sort of our spiritual home, even though we are southerners.
01:08So what was the reaction when you saw that this site was open and that it was an opportunity
01:14to open a café here?
01:15Yeah, it's one of the things we sort of always have lived around in this area. It's central,
01:24it's easy to get to everything. So this site is a brilliant site with a new tram stop
01:32at the station. There's a lot of footfall around here. I mean, the only disadvantage,
01:37I would say, is parking. It's a bit of a nightmare. Everywhere else we've been able
01:44to have parking, so that is something that's a slight issue, but otherwise, perfect situation.
01:52Yeah, so I think it's a really good location. So what kind of things are you offering on
01:58the menu at this café?
01:59We do everything homemade, all fresh, locally sourced ingredients. We do an all-day breakfast,
02:07three items, five items, or ten items. You tell us what you want on the plate. I always
02:13joke that you can have ten eggs if you want it, and to be honest, it has been done because
02:18somebody was bulking up. Other, we do daily specials, all freshly made. They all range
02:26from, on Monday we're going to be having chicken breast with sage and onion stuffing, potatoes,
02:34vegetables and gravy. We're also going to have a pasta bake. There's always a vegetarian dish
02:39on there. I'd say everything is freshly made, and comfort food is probably the best way to
02:46describe it. All traditional stuff that your mum would make, basically.
02:50Yeah. Have you faced any kind of challenges in setting this up in Blackpool?
02:56Nothing to do with it being Blackpool. We've had a few issues with suppliers setting it up,
03:04but that's just one of those things that when they say they're going to deliver it on a certain day
03:11and they haven't, but otherwise, no real issues getting it sorted.
03:14Yeah. You talked about you've got the other businesses in, so in Watson and Latham. How
03:21much, many years experience would you say you've got previous to this?
03:25I'm a career caterer. I left school, went to catering college, and have always worked in
03:30catering. My partner is the same. He's the chef. He does all the cooking. I'm the front of house.
03:40This one is a particularly challenging one because the kitchen's on show. It's theatre-style cooking,
03:49so everything, you can see what you're getting. That's always a good thing as well. Bob,
03:58say first time we were working together in partnership, he's also a chef and his wife
04:04has worked front of house as well. We've got a vast amount of experience together. Steve and
04:10myself, we've been in business together in various forms for over 15 years.
04:15Yeah. We talked about the parking differences. Do you think there's going to be a big difference
04:24between other places and Blackpool? I think because most people who are coming
04:32into town will be walking anyway. They'll be using the trams. I don't think that that is too
04:37much of an issue. In the past, we've had customers that have needed their car. With them, not only in
04:47Blackpool but other places, it would be an issue that we haven't got parking.
04:54Have you managed to get much of a sense of local residents' reaction to this? Are people
05:00excited about the cafe? Yep. As I say, we've been in Blackpool really for the best part of
05:0810 years. A lot of people are interested in what we're doing. We've had reactions on Facebook
05:16already as sort of a watch this space sort of thing. People are looking forward to it. Even
05:24today, even though we're not open, we've had five lots of people wanting to come in and have
05:30a look. I think that's going to be a good thing. Also, the thing that we do is even though we've
05:38got our model of what we think it should be, we won't know what the customers want until they
05:44come through the door. We're very adaptable. We'll see what we want. The menu we've created
05:52has been based on what we've worked with in the past and we know works well. Do you have any future
06:05plans of anything different you'd like to do in the business in the future? Well, there is an
06:10upstairs room that has been used as a prep area in the past when there's been other cafes here.
06:17We're thinking about having that for group sessions, perhaps craft session groups or
06:25mother and baby groups or something like that. It's a space that we won't be using so let's see
06:33if we can utilise it. Do you have a particular favourite thing that's on the menu? I like
06:44everything on the menu to be honest because I know it's all the best ingredients. What I would
06:50say is one of the popular things is our lasagna. When we've been in one of the other cafes,
06:59a chap came in and said, I went to an Italian restaurant, your lasagna is better than theirs.