Amble hums with excitement over new Café-Bar

Hummingbird, a new Café-Bar in Amble specialising in grazing boards and cocktails, has soared in popularity, seeing turnover increase way beyond expectations since opening in Spring this year. Owners Chris and Becca Green have had a whirlwind few months and are well on their way to achieving their 3-year growth plan way ahead of schedule thanks, in part, to the support received from the Rural Design Centre.

With a name inspired by a tattoo shared by Becca and her Dad, Hummingbird originally started life as a 20-page cocktail leaflet and pop-up events before transforming into a 200-page hardback cocktail book, a bustling new Café-Bar on Queen Street in Amble and developing a range of ‘at home’ cocktails by the bottle.

Chris, a former mixologist at Michelin-starred House of Tides, describes the start-up and success of the business; “We were never sure where the business would go. Initially, I wanted to create a 20-page booklet with my favourite cocktails in, and do a batch run so that we, and a few of my friends and family would have something on their coffee table. That’s now turned into us having the new café-bar, and we’re in the final stages of creating a 200-page cocktail book which we’re hoping to publish soon. When we first met Liz from the Rural Design Centre, we didn’t know which direction we were wanting to go in. She helped us put together a three-year and a five-year business plan so that we could map out each stage and decide what it was we were wanting to achieve. We are already well on our way to hitting our three-year targets within only ten months.”

The couple are both Amble locals and are proud to be able to link in with other local suppliers, making a conscious decision to give their customers a truly Northumbrian experience. Their menu of sharing boards is constructed using produce which is sourced within a 22-mile radius of the premises, with their chutney supplier being only a few doors down! Becca describes their food offering, “We wanted to serve the things that we love to have ourselves; so we have Doddington Cheeses, we get all of the pork pies, sausage rolls, scotch eggs from Turnbulls in Alnwick. Even the crisps,  and the oil and vinegars we use for dipping are from Seabanks at Buston Barns which is just down the road. We have an amazing group of producers here in Northumberland it makes sense to showcase what we have an offer in the region.”

The pair have also been working with Hepple Spirits, based in Morpeth, learning more about their unique distilling techniques in order to share details of the provenance of ingredients with their customers; even being given the opportunity to plant their own juniper bush, laying the foundations to make cocktails with their very own gin berries in the coming years.

Liz Gray, Senior Innovation Manager, Rural Design Centre, said, “Chris and Becca have such a great product but weren’t sure how to plan beyond their pop-up events, so we went through their mid- and long-term goals and looked at how they could grow and maintain the ethos of what it is they have already. I worked with Chris as he took the next step of getting a mobile unit – in this case a small horsebox, and from there we agreed on future targets and what help we could give. They have now surpassed these targets and have done it in a sensible way, and it is so good to see how their brand is taking off.”

“It is a delight to work with so many different types of businesses as part of the Rural Design Centre, even more so when we see one business tapping into a network of local based businesses, each providing or delivering a service whether that’s business to business or business to customer. The innovation in the area is astounding and so good to be a part of helping people wherever we can.”

The support delivered by the RDCIP is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and part-funded by The North of Tyne Combined authority, so there is no cost to eligible organisations.

If you would like to find out more about Hummingbird visit – https://www.facebook.com/hummingbird.ltd/ 

If you would like to find out more about the Rural Design Centre Innovation Project visit - https://www.rural-innovation.co.uk/