With the people of Newcastle saying that Greggs is a staple of the North East’s culinary culture, we caught up with the owner of a newer, independent and local brand that has taken the North East by storm, Deep North.
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00:00I'd say the Greggs sausage roll, definitely, 100%.
00:03Why is that?
00:04Because anywhere you go there's a Greggs,
00:06and that's what you always see in people's hands,
00:08a Greggs sausage roll, definitely.
00:10Like I say, Greggs.
00:13It's one of the places nearly everybody uses, so...
00:18Ridley Place.
00:19Everything, was it, the three at the end,
00:22Zapatistas, Doe Days,
00:24those two are probably my favourites.
00:26Other than that, probably Greggs.
00:29I mean, there's one over there, there's one there,
00:31there's one just over there.
00:33I love Greggs.
00:35While there are so many amazing food venues
00:37and signature dishes, they're actually not wrong.
00:39Over 80 years ago, a man called John Gregg
00:42delivered fresh eggs and yeast to families
00:44around Newcastle by pushbike.
00:46Ten years later, he opened his very first store
00:48on Gosforth High Street in 1951,
00:51which is still there today.
00:54With around 2,300 stores across the country,
00:57it's indeed of the city's origin.
00:59There's a modern-day phenomenon in Newcastle
01:01called Deep North.
01:03I headed to Tynemouth, to the first store
01:05that they opened, to catch up with O'Neill
01:07to find out about Deep North's success.
01:10We're a specialty coffee and artisan donut business.
01:13Yeah, so we started here in Tynemouth
01:15in August 2022.
01:18So we kind of had the idea
01:20that we wanted to do something in hospitality
01:22and create kind of a brand around
01:25something quite niche, if you like,
01:27focus on one or two products,
01:29but do it really, really well.
01:31So we found this spot in Tynemouth,
01:32great location next to the coast.
01:34We moved the kitchen a couple of times
01:35because we make all our own donuts
01:37from scratch every day.
01:38So they're made fresh, we make the dough
01:40kind of today for tomorrow's donuts.
01:42So we prove the dough for kind of 24 to 36 hours
01:47and then make all the fillings, the glazes,
01:49everything like that from scratch.
01:50So we really put a lot of focus on
01:52kind of developing that kitchen
01:54and growing that so we can grow our kind of capacity.
01:56So we probably started here in Tynemouth,
01:59I don't know, making something like 500 donuts a week
02:02and now we're up to kind of four or 5,000 a week.
02:05So, but also we've got a shop now
02:07at Dean Street in Newcastle,
02:08which we opened just over a year ago.
02:12And then a shop at Sheepfolds in Sunderland,
02:15which we opened about six months ago.
02:16We do a lot of events and markets and kind of pop-ups.
02:19We had a pop-up at Newcastle Airport last summer,
02:22which was great.
02:23Didn't just want to open up one coffee shop.
02:25You know, we wanted to build something and grow something
02:28and we're really passionate.
02:29Like my backgrounds,
02:31I've done a little bit in hospitality,
02:33but in sport as well,
02:34but actually on that community side of sport.
02:36So we've done things like we partnered with
02:38an organisation called Dip Club
02:39to do a monthly dip in the sea.
02:41So we call it Dunk and Donuts.
02:43So basically we go and have a dip in the sea
02:45and then coffee and donuts on the beach afterwards.
02:47We want to open new sites and we're in the process
02:50of actually looking at a new site
02:52to move our kitchen to,
02:53but actually open up another shop there as well,
02:55which hopefully will kind of come through
02:57in the next couple of months.