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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
Entertainment
Lynette Pinchess

Blend opens third cafe in 'challenging part' of Nottingham

The coffee and grilled cheese toasties that have put a Nottingham cafe on the map can now be enjoyed at a new site in the city.

Blend, which first opened at Sneinton Market in 2017, has taken over the coffee shop at the Nottingham Contemporary and has just started trading after a revamp.

The gallery attracts artists from around the world and has had two million visitors since launching in 2009.

Staff hope exhibition visitors will take a break at Blend but the cafe is open to anyone.

Depending on your route in, you may have exerted yourself climbing up the Garner Hill steps at the back of the Contemporary.

The alternative is descending two flights of stairs from the gallery shop in Weekday Cross. An easier, less energetic option is to take the lift to the lower floor.

However you make your entrance, a warm welcome awaits caffeine lovers, art aficionados and families whose children are taking part in half-term activities.

Blend has stamped its identity on the downstairs space, giving the minimalist, concrete surroundings a pop of colour and the aroma of coffee from its own roastery.

The menu features some of the most popular aspects of the Sneinton Market offering and plenty more besides.

A big focus is placed on brunch, with options including the 'ultimate' bacon sandwich, poached eggs on sourdough, and homemade beans on toast.

The toasties that Blend is well known for appear; all the favourites from Brieyonce to Kevin Baconator and new ones like the Book of Boba Fetta, created using chicken and feta cheese.

Sandwiches, salads and the new addition of poke bowls feature, along with sausage rolls, cakes and croissants.

Blend - which also runs Blend East West beneath City Gate offices in Tollhouse Hill - uses coffee for all three venues from Stewart's of Trent Bridge.

The roastery has stuck with the name despite moving from The Meadows to Sneinton Market a few years ago.

Nathan Barton, who runs Blend and is co-director of the roastery, said the intention had never been to open a coffee shop, let alone three.

"We originally had this idea we were going to have this roastery and put in a little coffee bar in it to sell a couple of cups of coffee and supplement things.

"The Creative Quarter (at the market) was looking for a coffee operator so we opened Blend with the roastery next door.

"The expansion has come a bit out of luck. The East West one was an opportunity that came up out of the blue and was easy to take on.

"There is no grand plan to take over the UK with Blends on every corner. Part of me thinks the roastery is still our core business."

The art gallery's cafe was previously run in-house.

When the takeover opportunity arose, it was a no brainer said Mr Barton.

"This was an easy one to take on - it's a good fit. We talked about this a long time ago. We flirted around this idea of having conversations with the Contemporary for a number of years then this opportunity came up fairly recently.

Blend's Brieyonce toastie (Guys Who Dine)

"We felt the clientele here, the look and feel of the space here, it works well for us. It was a good opportunity for us to step into - the minimalism, the concrete features inside, the fact that it's an attraction for Nottingham in the first place, from our point of view putting a business inside half the footfall is already there.

"There is a bigger kitchen here. When we first opened at Sneinton it was very much a simple offering, we had a very small space and we rolled with the grilled cheese option.

"We've still got the grilled cheese as we had before but the new chef has got lots of ideas for brunch, vegetarian and vegan.

"There's a bigger children's menu here to cater to that audience, so basically we have more scope to grow."

Previously the 60-seater cafe didn't operate on Mondays when Nottingham Contemporary is closed but the new venture will be open seven days a week, with an earlier start from 8.30am on weekdays and 9.30am at weekends.

Contemporary spokesman Andy Batson said the menu had been limited after returning from lockdown, with sandwiches bought in.

It is hoped the new venture will help to attract more footfall to the area.

"It's not just Covid that's a challenge for us, it's Broadmarsh and footfall in this area has declined which is why having Blend here with such an established brand in the city and they are thought of so affectionately, the hope is they will pull people into the building who might come for a cup of coffee and think I've got half an hour extra and will go upstairs and have a look at the exhibitions as well.

"We are absolutely delighted Blend wanted to come in. It's become a wonderful and colourful space.

"I think while we were running it the offer was ok - now we are super excited that Blend are here and we can reclaim some of that destination."

Plans for the future include live music in the evenings and capitalising on the outdoor terrace, which is a real suntrap in the summer.

Emma Rees, who was having coffee with her friend Rhea Clements, said: "It's such a cool space and the coffee's really good and the toasties are amazing."

Gary Woodhouse, former project manger at Nottinghamshire County Council, was also enjoying the coffee while working away at his laptop on his first novel.

"Writing is a very solitary job so it's nice to go to places to be around people," he said.

"Since Covid's eased off I've been trying to find places that I'm happy to sit and write in and this is one of them.

"I like the space, it's friendly, it's warm and it's perfect."

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