See inside the new business aiming to serve the best coffee in South Shields

A new business is aiming to serve the best cup of coffee in South Shields.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

The Owl & The Swan has opened in Mitre Place and is flying the flag for speciality coffees and healthy breakfast options.

It's the brainchild of partners Luke Harrison and Tracy Holmes who have turned their passion for good coffee into a business.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They already run the neighbouring businesses, Total Fitness Tribe and Tracy’s Ladies Fitness, and decided to transform former storage space into a new coffee shop.

The Owl and the Swan coffee shopThe Owl and the Swan coffee shop
The Owl and the Swan coffee shop

As well as catering for gym-goers with protein smoothies, clean eating cakes and avocado on sourdough, they’re hoping to attract sit-in and take away custom with their speciality coffees, which are made using speciality grade Origin Coffee. Dogs are also welcome at the site off Commercial Road.

Luke said: “We believe that we’re the only dedicated speciality coffee shop in Shields. Speciality coffee means that care is taken with the whole process: the beans are lightly roasted to enhance the flavour and the farmers are looked after.

“There’s actually a lot of science that goes into coffee, such as measurement and time and grinding and it all affects the flavour. It’s a bold statement, but we really do believe we make the best cup of coffee in South Shields.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We want people to take the first sip and think ‘wow, this is different’.”

The Owl and the Swan coffee shopThe Owl and the Swan coffee shop
The Owl and the Swan coffee shop

Speaking about how his appreciation for speciality coffee began, Luke said: “Six years ago I took my first sip of speciality coffee at Flat Caps Coffee in Newcastle and it blew my mind. Before that, I’d always had instant coffee. After that we became really interested in speciality coffee, going to London Coffee Festival and doing our research.”

The name of the business comes from Luke and Tracy’s spirit animal names.

Luke said: “A lot of people think it sounds like a pub, but there’s lots of speciality coffee shops with names like that, like Fig & Sparrow in Manchester, so we think it works.”

*The Owl and The Swan will be open from March 13, from Tuesdays to Saturdays 7.30am to 1.30pm.

*For a guide to other coffee shops in the borough see here.

Related topics: