Biscuit & Brew Are Moving To Victoria Street

Aim

Biscuit & Brew are moving to Victoria Street. Help us finish our new tea house and lounge!

Who We Are

Three years ago we moved from our home in Yorkshire to open Biscuit and Brew, a tea house on Hounds Gate, Nottingham. 

Dee, a dance teacher by trade had lost much of her work due to Covid. Darren too, who had mostly distanced himself from the music industry to concentrate on his masters degree in Philosophy, was now working in retail. Covid hit, and with it he lost enough of his regular hours to become a bit concerned. What had been building up prior to Covid was the loose leaf tea business. 

We had been developing our own loose leaf tea blends together for a while. At first, it was a way to promote the music Darren had been writing as Arthur Dove with tea that tasted like the songs he had written. You'd drink it while you listened. That idea was a bit wild and we still do it. But eventually, we knew we wanted to branch off into less obtuse flavours that were based on cakes, biscuits, cocktails, sweets and whatever else we thought would taste great as a tea infusion. It was a bit of a lark really. Through all that time, a couple of years, we were just selling the tea to our friends and people watching Darren perform live. When Covid hit it escalated quickly. For us, stuck at home too, there wasn't much else to do but dream up new blends and talk about them to anyone who'd listen to us on Instagram.

The Hounds Gate Tea House

Still furloughed and bored, we found a shop for sale on Hounds Gate. 

We decided to take the plunge. It sounds crazy, and everyone told us it was risky, but within a day of deciding to take the tea business more seriously we were in Nottingham and making an offer on the shop we've been trading in since. It really was that quick (and we always thought the bigger risk was sticking with what we had been doing pre-lockdowns, even though we could see it wasn't working anymore).

Almost three years later and we're still here trading out of this wonderful, tiny little place on Hounds Gate with 6 tables and room for only 18 people. We've built up a reputation for friendly welcomes, innovative breakfasts like Spice Girl and Maple Bacon Banana Bread, our vintage afternoon tea's, and of course our passion for developing the best tasting loose leaf tea blends (oh - but we also do ace matcha's, coffees, Belgian hot chocolates and chais).

Something we've heard from our customers, and don't worry, we've felt it too, is that we're too small. We've always liked that because the shop has always felt cosy, especially in those colder months, and for us, when we were trying to learn the trade, it was easy enough (but not too easy!) for us to handle the workload. Now, 3 years on we spend much of our time trying to squeeze in everyone who wants to visit us and in most cases turning others away. We don't like that as much. 

We're Moving to Victoria Street!

Coincidentally, months ago while walking past another shop on Victoria Street (it was previously Bird & Blend, those with a keen eye may have noticed), Darren had thought to himself "this would be a great place for a coffee shop". 

We spoke of it together, but didn't really think much of it until a short while later, when that same space became available to let. We decided to have a look, partly out of curiosity, but as soon as we saw it we knew we could do something that we could never do at Hounds Gate. 

We could have our cake and eat it. Some of our customers are families, friends or couples and what they want is to meet up for a meal with a drink, have a chat, feel good. Others, just want to drop in to pick up a coffee on their way to work. Some of you just want to chill out, read a book, and relax in a quiet space. At Hounds Gate that's a real struggle for us given the availability of tables. But, at Victoria Street, not so much. There's room to house an even bigger cafe than we already have, with nearly double the space to dedicate to serving the best food. There's more room still for those in a rush or who want to restock on loose leaf tea with space for a takeaway bar. With the extra room downstairs we can even make a cosy lounge for those who just want to come by, put their feet up and do some crochet. 

And so, that's what we want to do. We've got the building, we've built new walls, we've painted, rewired the electrics, accidentally set off the alarms a few times, sanded down the beautiful but well-worn floors and woodwork, plumbed in everything and spent a lot of money in the process. Totally worth it. 

Here's some photos from before...

During..

Nearly there...

The CrowdFunder

But, we can't do it all on our own. We still need to fill it with tables, chairs, lights, a kitchen and a bar, decorations to make it look pretty and all the finishing touches that we need to make Biscuit & Brew not just a place to be, but the place to be. 

We've got a load of great rewards for anyone who chooses to help (just click the rewards tab to see more of that) from loose leaf tea bundles to tea tasting events or if you've always had a tea flavour that you wish we served in the shop but never have you could work with us to develop your own tea blend. We're also going to host a special launch event. Anyway, there's lots of rewards, big and small that could make perfect gifts for Christmas too. 

Just to round this up...

We wouldn't be in a position to take up this massive challenge had we not had the best customers visiting us over the last few years. Thank you for visiting us and telling all your friends, we really, really appreciate it. 

Onto the next challenge,

Darren & Dee

This project successfully funded on 19th December 2023