A new café has proven to be a huge hit with Whitley Bay residents in its first months of opening - and has turned life around for the married couple who run it.
Owned by Laura and Kris Campbell from North Shields, Meet Me On The Corner opened on Ilfracombe Gardens on the first weekend of May. Laura, 33, ran her own baking business, while Kris, 40, worked in restaurants and bars for 20 years before the pair embarked on their new coastal venture.
Kris’s demanding job as an executive chef, working in prestigious venues including Newcastle’s Vermont Hotel, meant that he often worked long hours late into the evening and wasn’t able to see much of their two young children Leo and Francesca, who are aged just five and three. Wanting to spend more time together as a family, the couple decided to start their own business together - and Meet Me On The Corner was born.
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“It was always a little bit of a pipe dream,” Laura says of owning their own food venue. But the dream was realised just under three months ago, in the form of a child and dog-friendly café in the heart of a residential area with outdoor seating perfect for the warm summer weather.
“It’s just a laid-back, relaxing space for families and couples to come and enjoy the day,” Kris says. And the new café has earned rave reviews from customers so far.
“It’s been amazing - like nothing we could have imagined,” Laura says of the venue’s debut. “The response has been incredible.”
The menu is “full of flavour and colour”, with Laura and Kris making sure to change up the offering regularly and featuring different specials to keep customers coming back to try new dishes. The café is also licensed to serve beer, wine and cocktails, alongside quality coffee from Tynemouth Coffee Company and luxury hot chocolate and milkshakes.
All the food is prepared in-house with Kris dishing up the breakfast, brunch and lunch dishes using fresh locally sourced ingredients, including sourdough from Eli’s Bakery in Killingworth, and Laura baking the mouth-watering brownies and cakes. “We wanted to create a cosy café vibe, but with restaurant-quality food,” Laura explains.
One thing that particularly sets the café apart from the competition is that it serves up an almost entirely gluten free menu. This decision was inspired by Laura’s personal experience - after being diagnosed with coeliac disease herself, she found it difficult to find places to eat out.
“There were lots of places where I couldn’t eat, or there was a risk, or there just weren’t many options,” she explains. “So we wanted to make something very inclusive - for vegetarians, vegans, people following a gluten-free diet - so they can come and eat and pretty much choose anything from the menu.”
Although the menu strives to cater to those who might struggle to find places to eat out elsewhere, that hasn’t deterred other customers - the pair have been told by many visitors that they hadn’t even realised the products they were eating were gluten-free.
Afternoon tea has just been added to the Meet Me On The Corner offering - with a gluten-free version available, of course. They are also hoping to introduce supper clubs to the café in the future.
Laura and Kris agree that starting their own business in Whitley Bay has changed their family’s life for the better. “Sometimes we just pick the kids up and go straight down to the beach from work,” Laura says.
“It’s still hard work, and it’s seven days a week - but it’s ours,” Kris adds. “I’ll have Christmas off this year for the first time in a long time.”
Meet Me On The Corner is open from 9am until 4:30pm Wednesday to Sunday. Watch the video above to take a look around this Whitley Bay hidden gem.
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