Bunn takes 'Best Café' award for Gosforth coffee shop

The Gosforth coffee shop, Bunns of Brunton, won the prestigious title - recognising their premises and community work.

Owner Sarah Bunn puts her heart and soul into her business, but recognises destiny may have played a part in her eventual calling.

She said: “I remember at school when I was doing ICT at GCSE, one of my teachers told me I’d have to have a bakery one day – and then it happened!

“I get delivery people asking for my name, and I say Bunn – and they look at me and ask for the real one.”

The café first opened its doors a decade ago, taking over an existing cake decorating supply and cake shop. Sarah was just 21 at the time and says she always wanted to put a coffee shop into the business, but was so busy she didn’t get around to it.

However, after just a few years of building the business, the Covid-19 pandemic caused havoc, as at thousands of other high-street businesses in the UK.

Sarah said: “We had staff who were furloughed, I lived at home with my parents at the time and we set up a mini coffee shop just for takeaway, baking and delivering, and that went so well – it really saved us at a stressful time.

“Business never picked up again after lockdowns, because people started buying cake supplies online, so we diversified and turned the whole business into a café and it’s been the best decision – not that it was easy.

Their coffee is supplied by another North East local business, Northside Coffee Roasters, and Sarah says the local community is a key part of their success.

“It’s massively important. The roastery is in Morpeth, 10 minutes away from where our shop is, and we have a really good relationship with them and work well alongside them.

“This is not a profit thing for us, obviously I need to make money to live but a lot of people go into the café business trying to make a quick buck.

“But that’s not what it is for us, it’s about being there for the community and making sure all our regulars are okay - we are really lucky with the following we’ve got.”

In fact, it was a mystery regular who put Bunns of Brunton forward for the North East England Business Award nomination.

Sarah said: “We still don’t know who it is – I said to my mum, you’ve got to swear it wasn’t you and she promised it wasn’t! That would have been so embarrassing if it was.

“Someone in the community nominated us, and then you get a letter through to say you’ve been nominated, then your customers vote to say why you should go through to the final.

“We got an invitation, on the week of the awards, to say we’d made it to the final and I was not expecting to win at all – I was just thinking it would be a great night out for the team.”

Bunns of Brunton is also heavily involved in community events, hosting bouquet making and book clubs, to involve other local businesses as well as give more to their customers.

“We want to bring as much as we can to the area, and it’s nice to add more for our customers – a lot of them are more friends than customers,” she said.

“And we link up with other little businesses to host in our space, florists and a book club and other things like that.

“I do think the North East is particularly loves to back someone, they’re very loyal – they see hard work and they get behind it, it’s not a corporate or flashy thing.”

So why did Bunn’s team get the victory? Sarah reckons it’s either down to the carrot cake – which sells out ‘instantly’, or the cheese, chili and bacon scones baked by her father.

But it’s also about providing a safe space to the people of Gosforth and beyond.

She said: “If I’m being completely honest, I set up the business when all my friends went off to university and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I loved baking.

“I suffered quite badly with anxiety at the time, and me and my mum set up this little business, and I just ploughed everything into it almost as a way of helping my mind.

“I always thought if I felt rubbish, I liked to go to a coffee shop and feel welcome and safe, and I like to provide that for other people now.”