A Nottingham coffee shop will be opening a second location following the success of their business in Colwick Park. The distinctive yellow Wired on Wheels coffee van will be based at Hilltop Nurseries in Lambley from July 1.
The coffee shop has developed a loyal following who visit every weekend to take in the views of the park which looks out on to Colwick lake. It has been so successful the shop has now expanded into ice cream and has opened a breakfast bar.
The menu ranges from bacon and sausage cobs, all sourced from local butchers or bakers, along with vegan options, to warm croissants or cakes. In the winter, the vans are still there although it can be a bit chilly to sit down, the team is on hand to provide steamy hot chocolates loaded with marshmallows or cups of tea for walkers.
Owner Très Gretton-Roche said: "We just bought a second trailer that we are putting into Hilltop nurseries in July which is in Lambley Lane. It's a beautiful little garden centre so it will be the two locations from Friday, July 1."
The cafe has gone from strength to strength after taking a huge leap of faith in closing its physical cafe in Pelham Street, Nottingham. Lockdown was the main reason for the closure as the restriction made it very clear quickly the cafe could not survive.
"We couldn't survive with the restrictions that were being talked about. Our cafe was so small and half of our seating was in the ground floor and the other half in the cellar - so we had to think if we could survive with only half of our customers due to restrictions on space. We had a lot of conversations with the accountants and it became clear that we couldn't," she said.
"We tried it for take out for a while but the town centre was like a ghost town. Our customers worked in the city so we had to make a decision very quickly. We decided to diversify and do something different."
As lockdown closed one door, it opened another, due to the number of people who took up walking and visited the park during restrictions. Whole Health also runs a popular wild open swimming session from that part of the park so footfall from bikers, swimmers and walkers has created a little community in Colwick.
The last year has been tough going as the team had to adjust to the loss of a cafe with a large kitchen and had to learn how to work in a condensed van space.
"I breathed for Wired and it was such a hard decision to make. It had been my baby that I had grown and it was tough to let that go to start something new. It was a complete leap of faith. It was really important to me that while we condense the city centre shop into a tiny space, it had to keep the standard of Wired," she said.
"All of our cakes are homemade, our ice cream is Italian gelato. and our coffee is the same as it was in Wired. I think people are surprised when they come over that they have found this coffee in the park. Finding this coffee is a walk in the park - you can do it. It doesn't have to be horrible. That's what we wanted to do was to take the standards of Wired but make it mobile," She said.
"People discovered it and went, wow, I had no idea this was here. They discovered the park during lockdown because it was such a beautiful open space. We had some customers who followed us from the cafe too and had seen where we were.
When it comes to support, Tres stressed that without the help of her partner Vanessa, it wouldn't be possible to run Wired.
"We could not run Wired on Wheels without her as she is the most supportive person. I'm always ringing her on a Saturday afternoon to say, 'we run out of milk; and she just goes out to get what we need every single time. We couldn't do it without her."
