Newcastle’s famous City Foods

National World - LocalTV

With the people of Newcastle saying that Greggs is a staple of the North East’s culinary culture, we caught up with the owner of a newer, independent and local brand that has taken the North East by storm, Deep North.

Transcript

00:00I'd say the Greggs sausage roll, definitely, 100%.

00:03Why is that?

00:04Because anywhere you go there's a Greggs,

00:06and that's what you always see in people's hands,

00:08a Greggs sausage roll, definitely.

00:10Like I say, Greggs.

00:13It's one of the places nearly everybody uses, so...

00:18Ridley Place.

00:19Everything, was it, the three at the end,

00:22Zapatistas, Doe Days,

00:24those two are probably my favourites.

00:26Other than that, probably Greggs.

00:29I mean, there's one over there, there's one there,

00:31there's one just over there.

00:33I love Greggs.

00:35While there are so many amazing food venues

00:37and signature dishes, they're actually not wrong.

00:39Over 80 years ago, a man called John Gregg

00:42delivered fresh eggs and yeast to families

00:44around Newcastle by pushbike.

00:46Ten years later, he opened his very first store

00:48on Gosforth High Street in 1951,

00:51which is still there today.

00:54With around 2,300 stores across the country,

00:57it's indeed of the city's origin.

00:59There's a modern-day phenomenon in Newcastle

01:01called Deep North.

01:03I headed to Tynemouth, to the first store

01:05that they opened, to catch up with O'Neill

01:07to find out about Deep North's success.

01:10We're a specialty coffee and artisan donut business.

01:13Yeah, so we started here in Tynemouth

01:15in August 2022.

01:18So we kind of had the idea

01:20that we wanted to do something in hospitality

01:22and create kind of a brand around

01:25something quite niche, if you like,

01:27focus on one or two products,

01:29but do it really, really well.

01:31So we found this spot in Tynemouth,

01:32great location next to the coast.

01:34We moved the kitchen a couple of times

01:35because we make all our own donuts

01:37from scratch every day.

01:38So they're made fresh, we make the dough

01:40kind of today for tomorrow's donuts.

01:42So we prove the dough for kind of 24 to 36 hours

01:47and then make all the fillings, the glazes,

01:49everything like that from scratch.

01:50So we really put a lot of focus on

01:52kind of developing that kitchen

01:54and growing that so we can grow our kind of capacity.

01:56So we probably started here in Tynemouth,

01:59I don't know, making something like 500 donuts a week

02:02and now we're up to kind of four or 5,000 a week.

02:05So, but also we've got a shop now

02:07at Dean Street in Newcastle,

02:08which we opened just over a year ago.

02:12And then a shop at Sheepfolds in Sunderland,

02:15which we opened about six months ago.

02:16We do a lot of events and markets and kind of pop-ups.

02:19We had a pop-up at Newcastle Airport last summer,

02:22which was great.

02:23Didn't just want to open up one coffee shop.

02:25You know, we wanted to build something and grow something

02:28and we're really passionate.

02:29Like my backgrounds,

02:31I've done a little bit in hospitality,

02:33but in sport as well,

02:34but actually on that community side of sport.

02:36So we've done things like we partnered with

02:38an organisation called Dip Club

02:39to do a monthly dip in the sea.

02:41So we call it Dunk and Donuts.

02:43So basically we go and have a dip in the sea

02:45and then coffee and donuts on the beach afterwards.

02:47We want to open new sites and we're in the process

02:50of actually looking at a new site

02:52to move our kitchen to,

02:53but actually open up another shop there as well,

02:55which hopefully will kind of come through

02:57in the next couple of months.

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