We’ve had people travel from Scotland and Wales to visit our South Shields coffee shop
A coffee shop and eatery has become an instant hit in South Shields.
Pickle & Peach has proven to be popular with people far and wide within its first seven months of trading on South Shields’ iconic Ocean Road.
Opened on September 1 by owner Sara Carroll, who is originally from Manchester, the popular venue has shifted from her initial vision of a coffee shop to now being one of the top brunch spots in the North East.
The coffee shop and eatery prides itself on fresh produce, with its steaks coming from Charlotte's Butchery, in Gosforth, and coffee beans from Salford Roasters as a nod to Sara’s North West roots.
Sara has told the Shields Gazette that since opening last year, Pickle & Peach has naturally evolved to meet the expectations of its customers, who are travelling from across the UK to visit the venue.
She said: “It has been brilliant and also really busy from the first day that we opened, we’ve just not stopped.
“I didn’t really know what to expect before we opened, I knew the location was good and I knew that the town needed something like this so I took a chance on it.
“It has evolved from me thinking it would just be a coffee shop into the food becoming more important, which is something that just shifted itself, it wasn’t something that I planned.
“We soon changed from ‘breakfast and lunch’ to a ‘brunch-style’ menu and that’s what has worked.
“I leave the chefs to that part of it and they regularly change the menu, they add things and take things off to create something unique.
“Everyone has been saying that South Shields needed a place like this and we’ve seen people travel from Scotland and Wales due to how popular we’ve become on social media.”
Matty Weavers, the Head Chef at Pickle & Peach, joined the business after it had opened but he soon crafted the venue’s menu into something that is unique to South Shields.
He commented: “I think we’ve hit a gap in the market in South Shields with the quality and style of food that we serve - even the style of building with the décor.
“We [the kitchen team] came in later as the business started with different chefs so we redeveloped the menu, changed the concept and it just took off.
“We wanted to keep the menu small so we can make everything fresh and change it as often as we like.
“That has helped us keep people interested, especially because the venue is only a small one.
“The kitchen was already in place when we came in and it isn’t a professional set up so we wanted to get food out quickly, hot and fresh and we’ve pretty much nailed it.
“Because we’ve got an open kitchen, we’ve had people coming up and telling us that the food is amazing - if it was just ‘okay’, they wouldn’t do that.”
Despite having only been open for just over seven months, Sara is looking to expand Pickle & Peach to meet growing customer demand with a planning application having already been submitted to create a “weather protected external seating area”.
You can keep up to date with the Pickle & Peach at: https://www.instagram.com/pickleandpeach_ or https://www.facebook.com/p/Pickle-Peach-61580292803898/.
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