Keen climber becomes café owner
Keen climber, Joe Beaumont, never saw himself as a café owner, but a tragic fall that led him to a challenging recovery journey, he found himself able to carve a career within the beloved landscape of mountains and land, and with his feet firmly on the ground!
Joey’s is now a café located in the picturesque location of Wray Castle, within National Trust grounds, along with two other locations at Claife Viewing Station and Hilltop. Starting the business within covid, this was a great achievement for the Joey’s brand, now being a fully staffed team with a bakery manager, three bakers and two chefs.
The majority of goods are freshly made on site including a huge range of cakes, traybakes, muffins, breakfast pastries, and savoury options too. The team have brand themselves as a mostly plant-based café with some vegetarian options too, which is following Joe’s own dietary choices.
‘I think it’s the most ethical and right way to go about setting up a business like this in hospitality and lets be honest, there is no place like us. A plant-based bakery, in a castle, opened during a pandemic, we must be in the Guinness Book of Records!’ explained Joe. ‘It is a challenge sometimes with our customers because we are in a semi-remote place, but we win people with taste over torture.’
When building the café, they worked closely with a consultant for their equipment purchases, ensuring the correct choices were made for their unique location and for what they wanted to achieve. The Polin Stratos Electric Deck oven was quickly highlighted as the best choice for them, an oven the team have named Barry.
‘It seemed like the clear leader and the obvious choice for us. It’s consistent, it’s easy to use, it’s intuitive, and with a little bit of training, anyone can use it!’ Joe shared.
Providing a consistent and even bake, the Polin electric deck oven is favoured by many users, being one of the leading choices within the industry. A sleek and stylish oven, with windows allowing for visibility of your product as it bakes, this oven is suitable for a huge range of bakery goods, including breads, pastry products, and sweet treats too. Joey’s use this especially for their sweet treats, which they are well known for, as well as savoury options, such as pasties.
With each deck containing stone baking soles, bakers can produce a quality, authentic and consistent bake that is second to none. The Polin offers independently controlled decks along with top and bottom heating elements that offers versatility and flexibility allowing for precise results.
The modular construction of this oven also allows for additional decks to be added in future, making this a great investment for many bakeries.
