Situated in Herne Bay, Kent, there lies Beach Creative’. A creative building that includes studios, galleries, meeting rooms, and workshop space entirely voluntarily led with just two part-time paid members of staff.
Within Beach Creative you’ll find the very quaint and welcoming cafe, Toast, run by Sherry and Alison which has been going strong since 2017.
In our interview below you can find out how Toast came to be, what their most popular order is, and what three words best describe them.
Let's get to know them a bit more, shall we?
1. What's your story?
TOAST was born by chance. A chance conversation Sherry had about a year earlier had planted a seed that if the cafe in Beach Creative (the art gallery and studio space within which TOAST is housed) ever became available, she’d be interested. Then a chance conversation with a juice customer told her it was. Then by chance, she got stranded trying to make a juice delivery in the snow in early 2018 and the time to think gave her the idea that Alison might be interested in partnering. And a conversation in a snowstorm ensued and TOAST was born.
2. What made you choose Lost Sheep Coffee as your coffee provider?
TOAST’s mission (and in fact Sherry’s mission years before TOAST was even born) was to serve the best coffee in Herne Bay. Both Al and Sherry have a passion for excellent coffee and believe that when people know, they know and they will travel for the best cup. There is nothing worse than desperately looking forward to a beautiful cup of coffee and it not being right, or worse, not being nice at all! The coffee culture is just starting here and we are very excited to be part of that growing passion.
And Lost Sheep simply is the best-tasting coffee. It's delicate and rich all at the same time. Plus the help and support we received from Stuart (and Mike!) every step of the way has been incredible. He taught us everything we know and made us almost as meticulous as he is! And then we knew we’d made the right decision, the passion of the guys, the way they do things is all about the coffee and it shines through in their product. We can’t thank them enough!
3. What’s the most popular way your customers enjoy their Lost Sheep Coffee?
With cake! We have a coffee and cake deal running every day which is pretty popular. I would definitely say a lot of our customers drink in and we would like to encourage the takeaway cafe culture much more as we’re so well positioned for food shopping, post gym, cinema and the local park so this is something we’d like to work on introducing going forward. Sherry has just come back from Australia and the takeaway coffee buzz is huge there. We’ve also just become part of the #HerneBayHotDrinkScheme, which is a loyalty scheme involving a bamboo reusable cup to help reduce single-use packaging. As for types of coffee, our customers are quite equally balanced between lattes, cappuccinos, long blacks and flat whites. The frappes were a big hit in the summer too!
4. Other than the great coffee, why should people visit?
We offer simple, high-quality, 'comfortable' food. There’s something for everyone and we cater for special diets including vegan and gluten-free and we use the best ingredients. We support the community, have strong ethical values, and work hard on reducing waste and giving back. We have a welcoming, calm space for people to work or have meetings and are parent and baby friendly. We have a late night 'Beans on Toast club' on a Thursday and offer a chilled-out "loaf" menu on a weekend which includes Full English’s of all types including vegan and slimming world. We are also the only fresh juice bar in Herne Bay so we’ve got juice plans, smoothies and hangover cures covered!
5. If you weren’t at Toast, what would you be doing?
Trying to make the world a better place – maybe from somewhere hot
6. Three-word summary
We can’t squeeze anything into three words, can we have 6…?! “The best thing since sliced bread”
If you’re in the area and looking for a spot for some fresh juices, obviously a great coffee and delicious homemade food then head to Toast.
2019/2020 UPDATE!
A lot has been going on with our friends over at Toast since we first published this blog post, and the biggest bit of news has to be the opening of their second premises.
Toast Tankerton opened in October 2019 and is situated at the front of HQ Hairdressers on the high street.
They have a full menu with breakfast, light bites and cake options to choose from. As well as Lost Sheep Coffee, they have a drinks menu that includes fresh juices and more.
When we were there catching up with the Toast gang, we had some delicious Butternut squash soup and of course a Lost Sheep Coffee. It's a lovely space that catches the afternoon sun and has quite a bit of space for a good amount of customers. However FYI they do tend to host the Whitstable Park Run group every Saturday morning, so it might be a squeeze then.
All Toast staff have been trained by us at our roastery, with the owners Sherry and Alison being huge fans of Lost Sheep Coffee and just coffee in general. So that same passion we have for coffee is found here too and we love it!
Just like Herne Bay Toast, you can pick up our Speciality Coffee Beans and Capsules from Toast Tankerton, so you can take our great-tasting coffee home with you.
There you have it, a little Toast update. Now you have two places to enjoy delicious-tasting food accompanied by your favourite sheep coffee!
Let us know if you stop by!
Lost Sheep Coffee
