Tasty treats hailed as 'doughnuts that dreams are made of' by customers have made a triumphant return to the coast after a difficulty battle through the cost of living crisis.
R Place has opened a new shop on Nile Street in North Shields, in news that is sure to delight fans of the popular doughnut business. Co-owned and run by best friends Rachel Holmes and Emily Cromarty, both 31, R Place has proven hugely popular since taking Newcastle by storm a few years ago with show-stopping doughnut flavours including Toasted S'mores, Brown Butter Biscoff, Profiterole and Tiramisu.
After meeting in college over a decade ago and working various jobs together, Rachel and Emily realised that they were the dream team and decided to venture into opening their own business. Initially starting out with a coffee stall at a Newcastle market in 2017, the pair later off to London to study the art of doughnut-making - and returned to bring the "the world's most delicious gourmet doughnuts" to Tyneside.
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R Place formerly set up shop in Monkseaton, but Rachel and Emily were sadly forced to close the premises in December as the cost of living crisis hit their business hard. "It's been the hardest time of our lives," Emily admitted, with rising costs across the board proving to be a double blow in the wake of years of Covid restrictions.
But fortunately for foodie lovers, that wasn't the end of R Place - after lots of hard work from Rachel and Emily, who weren't quite ready to give up on their dream, the new North Shields shop opened on April 8. "Working to get the shop ready with no income was so hard - but we've always said we'd rather be skint and happy and keep R Place!" Emily said.
The venue proudly serves Tynemouth Coffee in store as well as bubble tea and milkshakes, and is also dog-friendly - with a puppuccino on the house for pooches who visit. Over on the food menu, there are of course the "one-of-a-kind" soft and fluffy doughnuts topped with glazes, frostings, jams and custards, but there's also plenty more to tuck into.
"We serve some gorgeous food including vegan choices, we have Sunday dinner sausage rolls, sandwiches, poké bowls, brownies, cookies, cake and of course our signature doughnuts!" Emily teased. The business partners start their day at 4am preparing ingredients and mixing dough for the day ahead, and can make as many as 500 donuts a day on busy weekends.
But the hard work pays off - R Place has earned rave reviews from customers, with one visitor saying as they recommended that others visit: "Greatest service around, and doughnuts that dreams are made of."
Another person said: "Friendly staff, great choice of drinks and doughnuts. Doughnuts are incredible! Fresh, delicious. Hubby says 'that was the best vegan donut I've ever eaten'. I'd say the same: absolutely outstanding!" Meanwhile, others branded the mouth-watering treats "to die for", "unreal" and "legendary".
"We think the future will be bright here," Emily said. "We always want our customers to know how much they mean to us - without them our dream wouldn't work, so for that we are grateful every day."
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