Before the sun comes up, and long before most people have started thinking about work or the school run, something else in Whitby has been rising.
Stuart and Carla, owners of the indie, family run Mr Cooper’s Coffee House on Church Street, are celebrating one year since transforming a former launderette at St Hilda’s Business Centre into their own dedicated Bakehouse.
The move has allowed the couple, who brought Mr Cooper’s to Whitby eight years ago, to bring around 80 per cent of their baking and food preparation in-house.
For Stuart and Carla, this isn’t simply about baking more. It also about having greater control over ingredients and recipes, particularly when it comes to allergies and dietary requirements.
Carla said: “Great food and coffee should be something everyone can enjoy. We’ve worked hard to make alternative eating part of the everyday, rather than something which feels like an afterthought.
“Allergies and dietary requirements are something we take incredibly seriously. Having one of our own mini Coopers with allergies, we understand how important it is to know exactly what goes into your food, and this does influence the dishes we make and ingredients we choose.”
Even the bagel itself has been developed to be a little different. Inspired by a classic New York staple, with elements of Japanese milk bread to create a softer, vegan dough – each one is hand rolled, finished with hole in the middle, boiled and baked in house every morning.
Stuart and Carla can be at the Bakehouse from 5am, producing hundreds of bagels daily. In an average week, they will work through 70kgs of bread flour and 42kgs of coffee back at the Church Street Coffee House.
And coffee is where it all began.
“Coffee was our first love and it’s still at the heart of what we do,” Carla said.
They teamed up with Rounton Coffee Roasters seven years ago and have a house coffee, which sits alongside regularly changing guest roasters so people can discover different beans, flavours and brewing methods.
“Whether it’s a carefully prepared filter, a classic espresso or something new from one of our guest roasters, we’re always looking for better and more interesting ways to enjoy great coffee”, she added.
That curiosity doesn’t stop when the doors close.
Stuart and Carla describe themselves as “bakery tourists”, with family days out and holidays regularly planned around coffee shops, bakeries and places they want to eat.
So, in a town already well supplied with cafés and bakeries, why open another one?
“When we started, we felt there wasn’t really anything offering what we wanted to eat,” Carla explained. “A lot of places were doing similar things such as paninis, jacket potatoes and the traditional café offering. We wanted to create somewhere doing food we wouldn’t necessarily make at home.
“Really, we’ve built a coffee shop around our own tastes. What we sell is what we genuinely like to eat and drink. We both grew up in armed forces families and were lucky enough to travel, experiencing different countries, cultures and food. I think that naturally found its way into what we do.”
On the menu, familiar dishes are often given an unexpected Mr Cooper’s twist. Their take on a Ploughman’s salad, for example, swaps traditional roast ham for Serrano ham, while the Baby Got Bac bagel brings together a sweet yet savoury bacon jam, with a truffled Caesar chicken.
Carla said: “We’ve never been interested in playing it safe with flavour, or simply following what everyone else is doing. Over the last eight years we’ve constantly evolved, experimented and pushed ourselves.
“Some ideas worked straight away, some changed along the way and some haven’t made it out of the kitchen. This is where the Bakehouse came in. It has given us the space to take those ideas further and bring as much as possible in-house.”
That sense of fun runs through the whole business, even to the name, coming from one of Stuart and Carla’s five children (no favouritism intended).
From the beginning, they wanted the business to have personality and a slightly cheeky character of its own. Bright takeaway cups, staff t-shirts, bold posters and an active social media presence, for example.
But, behind the playful branding is a business taking food and coffee seriously.
“We called ourselves a Coffee House because coffee was what we wanted to be known for. At the time it felt quite niche and, if I’m honest, we questioned whether we were good enough to call ourselves that. But it was aspirational and represented where we wanted to go.
“Eight years later, we still live and breathe it. It never really stops. We’re always asking ourselves, ‘what can we do next’?”
