"It's given me a new life. A healthier life," said Barbara Aston Johnson, 58, co-owner of Nonna's Doughnuts. "I love it. It makes me proud to run Nonna's as a plant-based café. It's hard work but it's been life changing and I'd never go back."
Barbara was speaking from her family-run bakery called Nonna's, tucked away in Swansea Market. The business sells delicious, generously-sized iced doughnuts and other sweet and savoury treats - all of which just happen to be vegan. If you came across this sort of business in a major city like London, you could expect to pay double the money and get a doughnut half the size. However, there is nothing pretentious or hipster about this small bakery right in the heart of the city centre, run by Barbara and her husband David Johnson, 66.
For a relatively new business, Nonna's has made quite a mark around the area. If you visit a café or coffee shop across Swansea and Llanelli, there is a good chance that you will be greeted by one of their trademark, colourful, iced doughnuts on the counter. David, who previously worked as a prison officer and Barbara, who worked as an occupational therapist for the NHS, opened their plant-based café in September last year. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The couple said they could not believe what had been accomplished in such a short time: "It's flown by and what we've achieved has been unexpected," said David. Barbara added: "I would never have guessed in a million years that people would have taken to our doughnuts like they have."
As well as its own café, Nonna's supplies doughnuts and other baked goods to seven other local businesses, these include: Favourite KaFei; Humble Coffi; Caffi Lolfa, Primavera Wellness Centre; Little Man Coffee; HQ Urban Kitchen; and The Swigg. From an LGBTQ+ wellness centre in Llanelli to the Gower café owned by critics' favourite Gigi Gao, it seems that Nonna's doughnuts are the magic ingredient for many businesses. Whether you are in Swansea town centre, near the Gower or in Llanelli, you are never that far away from one of their delicious treats.
Ironically, the plant-based café is located in Swansea's historic market which has many traditional stalls selling fish, seafood, specialist meat and local cheeses. However, David and Barbara have been "welcomed with open arms" by the other market traders and everyone pitches in together. The café is also the latest addition to the growing vegan community in the market which hosts a regular 'Vegan Mini Market'.
The couple are not your average plant-based café owners and they do not care if their customers are vegan or not, deliberately calling Nonna's 'plant-based' to avoid the stigma that is sometimes associated with veganism by dairy and meat-eaters. Over half their customers are people who do not follow a vegan diet and Barbara explained: "We welcome eaters of any persuasion. People are raving about the doughnuts and they discover that vegan food can be wonderful!"
The café's presence in Swansea has also helped parents with children who are lactose-intolerant, and Barbara loves watching young children being able to enjoy tasty food that they might not otherwise be able to eat. Barbara and David are both now vegetarian, although David used to be known as 'Mixed-grill Dave' before he opened Nonna's, but felt hypocritical going home to eat meat while serving vegan food all day.
The couple's plant-based journey began six years ago, when Barbara's daughter Niamh came home one day and told her mother that she was vegan. A self-confessed 'feeder' from a long line of women who loved to cook and were always in the kitchen, Barbara admitted she was daunted by her daughter's decision to dramatically change her diet.
Six years ago, veganism was less popular and Niamh found it difficult to find many options when she ate out, especially when it came to desserts. Barbara said watching her daughter eat a dry, shrivelled vegan brownie one day when they went out for dinner as a family "broke her heart" and she wanted to make sure her daughter could enjoy the foods she used to love before her diet changed. Having always baked, Barbara started to create vegan alternatives for Niamh and loved being in the kitchen when she was not at work in her busy NHS job.
In the height of the pandemic, on March 29, 2020, Barbara was sent home from work as her diabetes and asthma meant she was too high-risk to be looking after patients in A&E. "It was a day I'll never forget," said Barbara.
Barbara worked from home on the NHS Test and Trace scheme and for the first time in her life, she was stuck in front of a laptop all day. Desperately missing seeing her patients face-to-face and increasingly anxious about the future, Barbara spent much of her time off in the kitchen, baking vegan treats for Niamh.
She was feeling the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic and was unable to leave her house due to her father, who was living at home with them and vulnerable to catching Covid. "Those days off, I threw myself into cooking anything plant-based," Barbara said, "It was like a therapy for me. My happy place was the kitchen and my daughter has always been my inspiration."
One day during lockdown, Barbara's daughter brought home some shop-bought vegan doughnuts and gave her mam one to try. Barbara was unimpressed as these doughnuts had been baked in the oven rather than fried and did not taste like the indulgent dairy-made doughnuts she was used to. On her husband David's advice, Barbara decided to try baking some herself to see if she could do it better.
Donning her apron, she got to work trying to perfect a plant-based recipe that was still a "proper treat". Lining the windowsills with dough as they proved and using tiny woks to deep fat-fry her doughnuts, Barbara turned her kitchen into a production line of vegan delights.
"It looked like there had been an explosion in a sugar factory," Barbara joked. Whilst baking was helping Barbara stay calm during a difficult period in her life, there were not enough people in her family to eat her delicious creations and they were having to drive around locally to find people to give them to. Eventually, Barbara and David decided to open their own 100% plant-based café in Swansea so Barbara could continue baking doughnuts and find customers to enjoy them!
During this time, the NHS offered an early retirement package which Barbara accepted in August, 2021. David had already retired in May that year and the couple were looking at stalls in Swansea market. After working in the NHS for twenty years, Barbara said it felt that the retirement offer seemed like the perfect sign to change her life and open up a plant-based café.
"It felt like it was meant to be, I never worried about anything, even though I was changing my whole life! I just thought this is 100% what I want to do so we opened in the September."
Once they found their ideal shop in the market, which ironically used to be a health food shop, Barbara said the couple renovated "everything on a budget" and lots of items were recycled from their home. The counter in the café is their old kitchen counter from home and the tiles they used to decorate are ones that Barbara had overordered for her bathroom.
Perhaps it is this personal touch that makes Nonna's feel as though you are stepping into somewhere safe and familiar- a place that you can pop into and treat yourself with something sweet after a long day. One regular customer told them: "You've brought friendship into the market", and it is this warm atmosphere that Barbara prides herself on creating at the café which she said must come from her background in looking after other people at her old occupational therapy job.
While Barbara is the creative driver of Nonna's, David is business-focused and has come up with successful ideas to generate income, such as their gift vouchers which the couple said had proved very popular. Although they have never approached other businesses, they supply to many venues across the area and have to make over two hundred doughnuts some days out of their small kitchen in the market café. They employ one full-time member of staff and sell out by 2pm on most days. David said: "It's a joy coming to work knowing all the hard work is creating jobs and supplying a demand. Swansea was crying out for a plant-based place where people can buy a treat."
Unfortunately, less than three months after opening Nonna's, Barbara was rushed into hospital and had to undergo surgery and then receive round the clock care at her home due to an illness. Throughout Barbara's recovery, David and Steph, their staff member, have been running the café while Barbara watches and "micro-manages" from her bedside. Her high standards have still been maintained despite her absence and Barbara joked she was like Gordon Ramsay!
Despite Barbara's health issues and the rising costs for all small businesses at the moment presenting some hurdles, Nonna's is going from strength to strength and the café serves a range of savoury and sweet goods to its loyal customer base. There are plans to add a new counter to the café for more seating space and Barbara said she would eventually need more room to make all those doughnuts.
Always dreaming up new flavours, Barbara's creativity and passion is infectious and David's drive for the business is admirable. There is no secret to why Nonna's has been so successful but you will have to try one of their doughnuts for yourself to understand the buzz around them!
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