Dolly's Tearoom 
We are an independant family run business, that has been trading for three years in the suburbs of Nottingham. Our dream was to create something unique for families to relax and enjoy together. We pride ourselves on our welcoming environment, and plan to extend this feel further by opening our doors to the wider community. Our passion is food and the influences it has upon every element of life, from a persons mood to their physical wellbeing. Food can greatly impact a persons life, and we intend to embrace this in a positive, uplifting project.
We have always planned to open a British restaurant alongside our tearoom, however our vision is so much more than just another eatery. We want it to be an exhibit of sustainability, a place to feel proud to be British. With only the freshest, locally sourced foods, prepared within an eco friendly kitchen, our restaurant will be like no other.
We aim to expand the use of our premises into a community hub and restaurant. We want to become Nottingham's first GREEN restaurant using mainly renewable energy, organic and locally sourced foods as well as a 0% wastage policy by composting the majority of our waste, which will then be donated to the local allotments, plastic boxes, punnets, jam jars, glass bottles ect to be donated to local schools for their crafting projects and then any foods on or near their use by date will be donated to the YMCA centre or the local food bank.
With almost three quarters of our premises being unused we have a vision to create, develop and sustain an enterprise which utilises the entire space for the greater good of the community. We aim to open a large British restaurant with function room facilities to be solely run by individuals that have been in long term unemployment. Offering free onsite training to achieve qualifications such as NVQ’s and even offering local schools to use the facilities for their pupils work experience.
We also intend to create an onsite bakery and a cookery school on the first floor of our premises. Within the cookery school we would like to offer free classes to those suffering from food poverty, to share simple cookery techniques aimed to make their money stretch but to also offer affordable, nutritional recipes for them to recreate at home. We would also like to offer classes for children and young people on the basics of food preparation and the importance of nutrition, along with baby weaning classes to assist parents with their young ones to experiment with different foods in a fun, supportive environment.
Dolly’s goal is let the food bring the community together.
“LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE AND MEDICINE BE THY FOOD”
How to we plan to sustain a Green Restaurant
1. Install 50 solar panels on our roof to power our entire premises.
2. Install an eco air conditioning system to heat the premises rather than the traditional method of gas central heating.
3. Our water system to be solar powered.
4. Install low consumtion kitchen equipment.
5. We will recycle every element of our waste from composting, to upcycling, to donating food to the local food bank, we will endevour to reduce our waste to almost zero.
6. All lighting used will be led.
7. Materials used to create the new restaurant will be reclaimed, or repurposed to create an upcycled heaven, yet we'll retain our traditional elegant decor.
8. All walls, floors and ceilings will be re-insulated to the highest specifications to gain a high EPC rating.
Dolly's Bakery and Community Cookery School
Dolly's has built up a fantastic reputation over the years for our fabulous bespoke cakes and sugar crafting skills. We also bake all our own cakes and treats in our tearoom, these have become so popular we are now supplying these to other businesses from all sectors. With this new development of our business progressing further we require more space. However, rather than developing our premises space further to simply benefit ourselves, we believe it would be much more rewarding to convert the whole first floor of our premises into not only a bakery but many individual classrooms to teach and share our skills with others. These class rooms will also be available for other businesses and organisations to use free of charge for workshops to benefit our community.