Tag Archive for: opening

Our first month in the café

The café’s first month has been a great success and we are busy with the buzz of customers.

The café reflects our ethos of supporting local, and we use plenty of our farm shop stock in our dishes. Our suppliers provide us with products that we are proud to use in the breakfasts and lunches we serve.

Our classically trained chef and his team take local ingredients and create special dishes such as our Ayrshire Eggs – soft-poached eggs, black pudding, and Ayrshire bacon on a toasted muffin, covered in a rich hollandaise sauce. Or the Chef’s Cut Cheeseburger – short rib, chuck and brisket burger on a brioche bun with Scottish cheddar, baby gem lettuce, tomato, finished with our own burger sauce and served with skinny fries.

No matter the weather, we have had plenty of keen coffee drinkers and cake connoisseurs coming through the doors. And we can thankfully say that they have gone away satisfied!

Our cakes, bakes and tarts are freshly made in the Hub every morning and have proved incredibly popular. We have been serving up traditional Scottish bakes like scones and shortbread as soon as they’re out of the oven. Whilst our stunning lemon meringue tarts and cheesecakes have been disappearing as fast as we can make them.

For the safety of our customers and staff, we are working at a limited capacity right now. We are incredibly grateful to our customers who show great understanding that, not only are we finding our feet here, but that the entire hospitality industry is reopening after its biggest challenge in living memory.

It has been great to hear so many customers talk about how they feel that it is important to support local ventures such as ours. Convenience, sustainability, and quality all improve when we support local.

Eggs royale

The café is now open!

With our social distancing measures in place, the successful recruitment of new team members, and our test run of the kitchen complete, we can now offer a relaxed and satisfying sit-in service.

What’s Coming Out of the Kitchen

We are extremely pleased with our opening menu. It represents who we are, it celebrates local produce, and most importantly… it’s delicious! During this period, we are continuing to listen to our customers and find out exactly what you’re looking for.

Our chef and his team have shown fantastic creativity and versatility in designing the menu. We’re happy to offer Hubmade bakes and comforting meals that will leave you satisfied.

  • Cappuccino
  • Granola
  • Eggs Royale
  • Lemon Posset
  • Chef’s-Cut Burger
  • Knickerbocker Glory
Still Supporting Local

One of the major benefits of supporting local producers is that it guarantees that our ingredients are incredibly fresh.

Family favourites and some new additions all appear on the menu. Nisbet’s Family Butchers provides our meats, Corrie Mains provides free-range eggs and day-1 milk from Morton’s is used in our comforting porridge (including our porridge brûlée). Following all that, some Woody’s ice cream along with one of our desserts goes down a treat!

We serve breakfast from 9am-11am. Our menu includes full breakfasts, morning rolls, porridge, granola, and specialities such as Eggs Benedict and fresh baguettes served with Ayrshire ham and Corrie Mains’ eggs.

Our lunch menu includes Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Fish and Chips, and a Chefs-Cut Cheeseburger. You can find our desserts here too!

As well as that, our kids’ menus offer up family-friendly meals and treats. From Eggy Bread to Mini Mac ‘n’ Cheese, there’s plenty to keep the kids happy (and that’s before they get stuck into their ice cream at lunch!)

Given the enthusiasm and satisfaction of our customers in the farm shop, we are excited to have the café open and to offer you a brand-new, purpose-built space where you can socialise, engage, and enjoy time together – with a beautiful rural backdrop, and with fantastic local food at the heart of it all.

Ayrshire Shop Sign

The Doors are Now Open

Last week we opened our farm shop doors to the public for the very first time!

We are so pleased to say that we have been very busy serving a lot of happy customers. The feedback we have received has been incredibly positive. We are also grateful for customers’ suggestions of other products.

It has been great to find out what our customers really love. Our gorgeous fresh strawberries have been flying out the door, and we have had to make some emergency calls to restock our cheeses!

What’s really promising is the amount of return customers that we’ve seen. There really is no better compliment than a customer who looks forward to coming back to see us. This has just stressed the importance of talking to customers. It has helped us understand what they are looking for, and how shopping with us fits into their day.

Another thing that has proved important (as we knew it would), is the connection between a new venture and the communities round about it. We have had customers from Kilmarnock, Ayr, Galston, Darvel, Hurlford, Mauchline, Cumnock, and everywhere in between.

Hearing good things coming from each of these communities has been hugely encouraging, and it has let us know we are reaching the people that we are trying to reach. We want to serve these communities and become a part of their weekly (if not daily) lives.

Farm shop

The farm shop has allowed us to focus our ideas in relation to the café. We will start serving breakfast rolls from the farm shop, along with tea and coffee, for those customers who are on the move or wanting to pick something simple up before work.

Following this, we will get the café open in around a month’s time. This is when our incredibly talented chef will be able to show off our local ingredients in the most delicious and imaginative ways possible. From hearty dishes like steak pie or fish and chips, to other, equally satisfying bites like our chef’s-cut burger.

The café will serve up Rocket Monkey coffee, created in a small, artisan roastery in South Ayrshire. Deep, rich and delicious – the coffee is just one of the products that we are championing at the Hub. And thankfully, we have so many other products to be proud of here in Ayrshire.

Stocked shop shelves

Not Long Now…

The shelves of the farm shop are being stacked right this minute, the outside space is getting a good working over, the kitchen is ready to get up and running, the coffee machine is being put through its paces by the staff. It’s fair to say we’re on the home straight!

Although we had planned a grand opening where we would be able to have a real celebration, the current situation has put paid to that idea. We look forward to the days where we can see you all in person in a thriving yet relaxed setting. Our cosy café or sun-drenched outside space will provide the perfect setting for just that.

Opening the Farm Shop

In the meantime, we are very excited about our community-run farm shop opening this Wednesday (28th). There you can buy all sorts of amazing local produce. Kitchen staples and indulgent treats will all be available. Fruit and veg, jams and chutneys, cereals, chocolates, cheeses, biscuits, and everything in between.

The Team is Growing

We have also taken on new staff, which feels like a big step in the progress of the Hub. After all, they will be a huge part of the project. Some will be waiting tables and serving customers in the shop, others will be out and about in the community continuing our work within the local area.

With our team growing, we will be able to achieve a lot more. This growing team and the Hub building will provide a local amenity that simply wasn’t there before. Opportunities for more people within the community has gone along with the promotion of social integration within that same community.

By paying us a visit, you will see, not just how much our project has developed, but how much the Ayrshire food scene has developed.

We can’t wait to get open and start serving the community like we had always planned.

Address

Crossroads, Hurlford
Kilmarnock, Ayrshire
KA1 5JQ

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We have been successful in being awarded a grant from the Ayrshire Rural & Islands Ambition Fund (ARIA) for maintenance. Our plan of action as to how we will spend the maintenance fund, is needed repairs to small areas of the timber floor in the Café to prevent trip hazards and repair damaged areas to the walls of the Café caused by chair backs and hangings on the walls to freshen up the appearance of the Café and the environment for our customers to enjoy even more.