Plant based café, The Allotment Kitchen and Deli is now operating is now operating out of Gusto House in Collingham.
We sat down with Gemma Whitelock from the restaurant to talk about how the space is being received in the community.
Report by Newark Advertiser Photojournalist Rob Currell.
We sat down with Gemma Whitelock from the restaurant to talk about how the space is being received in the community.
Report by Newark Advertiser Photojournalist Rob Currell.
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00:25 - So we have actually quite a lot of people
00:34 who have come to the cafe so far
00:36 and identified themselves as vegan or vegetarian.
00:39 And actually Google reviews are quite interesting
00:42 because you're sort of a bit nervous
00:44 going and looking to see what people think.
00:46 But there's some really lovely comments
00:49 from people like ourselves.
00:51 People are just, you know, quite happy
00:53 and said that as an alternative,
00:55 they'd definitely come back.
00:56 And you know, all the local produce,
00:59 the sourdough and things, it just makes such a difference.
01:02 - I think people have realized that actually
01:04 you can try something a little bit different
01:07 without feeling intimidated.
01:08 You know, just being that you are suddenly a vegan,
01:11 it just means that you try something differently.
01:14 - So I started my food business actually working from home.
01:18 It was before lockdown actually,
01:20 when we were doing catering stuff.
01:21 It was a bit of a part-time venture alongside
01:25 working at a presentable job.
01:26 But then lockdown happened
01:29 and obviously everybody needed food,
01:33 healthy food, something decent,
01:35 without having to go to the supermarket
01:38 and join all those endless queues.
01:40 And obviously because there was a lack of food
01:42 or people perceived there to be a lack of food,
01:45 people were panicking.
01:47 It was an obvious sort of gap in the market
01:50 for a delivery service that was locally sourced,
01:53 locally grown veg, locally sourced other ingredients,
01:57 to then sort of collate them into recipe boxes
01:59 and then that's kind of where my business really took off.
02:03 So every week I was driving round Lincoln
02:07 and that sort of area,
02:09 delivering recipe boxes to people,
02:12 doing the contactless delivery
02:13 and dropping them on the doorstep,
02:15 giving them a wave through the window
02:17 and making sure that they had at least more decent meals
02:20 for the week, using all the veggies and stuff,
02:23 making sure that they had that sort of nutritional balance
02:25 that they needed.
02:27 - And why it's been designed that way
02:30 and the kind of environment that you're trying to create?
02:33 - Yeah, I mean, obviously the reason that we're doing
02:36 the food that we're doing is to be more sustainable,
02:38 so it was only appropriate really to start looking
02:41 for sustainable materials when it came
02:43 to the interior design.
02:45 So everything from the bench seating
02:47 that's been custom built by the Custode Construction,
02:51 that's using the reclaimed scaffold boards
02:53 that are actually on their building sites,
02:55 the acoustic baffles that we actually have on the ceiling
02:59 are reclaimed 1970s potato crates
03:03 actually from local growers.
03:05 They're all lined with recycled denim fibres
03:08 to make sure that it actually works
03:10 and functions properly.
03:11 It's not just an aesthetic thing,
03:13 it all has to actually work.
03:14 But the artwork on the walls in the cafes,
03:19 all the vintage papers and interesting sort of pamphlets
03:22 and things about growing techniques.
03:24 So there's a thread that runs through
03:26 that means that actually it's quite important
03:28 to make sure that it looks like a welcoming,
03:31 contemporary space that's got that nod
03:33 to the materials in that sort of sustainable focus as well,
03:38 just like the food.
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