Marmalade

Dawn Newcombe, owner  of Marmalade on Northgate St told the SC social about the expansion of her business .  A spacious upstairs area has been created after an extensive 3 week refit.  A new staircase leads up to the second floor, filling the space  previously occupied by  an insurance company.

Dawn, originally from Derby opened the cafe in August 2012. She told me : ” its grown and grown and we have quite a reputation for looking after people with special dietary requirements. We make everything here on the premises, homemade soup, cakes you name it. We do a bistro night once a month which is very good where people bring their own beer and wine. We were just running out of space so I had a lovely chat to my friendly landlord, who’s been fantastic in helping to create a new space upstairs. We’ve added another 30 covers up top and we have this lovely upper floor now. We have a license application in for alcohol and hopefully by the end of November you’ll be able to have a cheeky glass of wine with your lunch…

“Really we’re preparing for the future, when the lovely theatre opens in Chester so we can look after local people and offer early evening meals. In the mean time we would like to use the upstairs space for functions and private dining, or even for clubs and associations that might want to hold an event.

“In the coming weeks we’re also going to be incorporating a Sunday lunch into our menu.

Dawn is full of praise for Northgate St, the controversially labelled “28th worst street”…

“I think Northgate St has gone from strength to strength, in the three and a bit years that we’ve been here, I remember when we first opened , very few people would walk up and down this street and now its become a thriving area. We’ve got some fantastic neighbours like Arbol across the road, the art gallery where the butchers used to be, we have some very nice quality restaurants up here. With the addition of the Fountains surgery and the offices and the new apartment complex, even the Bull and Stirrup becoming a hotel, it all adds to the dynamics of the area. The theatre is the icing on the cake…

“We specialise in coeliac catering. With people who have a wheat or gluten intolerance it can make them very  ill. So all of our cakes are gluten-free and for customers who don’t need to eat gluten-free they wouldn’t taste any different. We also have people who can’t eat dairy products or have but allergies, we can guide people through the menu. More recently we’ve been getting a lot more vegan diners as well

Waitress Holly was also full of enthusiasm for the expansion, describing it as “mega.. The amount of times we’ve turned customers away or they’ve walked past.. hopefully with us having loads more seats upstairs we’ll be able to keep everyone happy…!” she smiled

Good luck to Marmalade, one of the city’s celebrated independent businesses.