A new café, Joe & Dough, has taken over the former home of Smorgas, and before that, Lynne’s Pantry, on Glossop Road, serving up a selection of doughnuts and cookies, a select sandwich menu (using homemade breads) and speciality coffee from local roasters Frazer’s.
Everything on the menu is made fresh onsite each day by Joe, using all natural ingredients which are sourced exclusively from local suppliers. Joe explained: “It’s important to me that everything is made, wherever possible, without additives. Literally everything, from the dough for the doughnuts, to the jam and custard inside them, and even the coffee syrups, I make myself.
“All my suppliers are from Sheffield. I could probably get everything cheaper from a national supplier, but I wouldn’t be getting the ingredients I want that aren’t loaded with E numbers. This way, I know exactly where my flour is coming from and can keep the food miles down. I try to support local businesses because I’m also running a local business.”
Joe’s ethos when setting up Joe & Dough has always been ‘delicious, never pretentious.’
“I just want to keep it simple, but at the same time, be creative and do my own thing,” says Joe. “I’ve been thinking about doughnuts for years. I’d been working as a baker for a local bakery, and I was kind of in charge of doughnuts. That was my thing. I liked coming up with new ideas.”
When Joe moved bakeries and that bakery expanded, he hoped he’d have the chance to start creating doughnuts again, but when that didn’t pan out, he took the bold step to go it alone. When he saw that the unit across from the Hallamshire Hospital was available, he took the plunge.
“When I spoke to the manager at the bakery about making more doughnuts, they thought about it, but decided that the doughnut thing was going to blow over!” says Joe.
“That gave me the motivation I needed to do it for myself. This place came up and because it was so well set up for what I needed, it just seemed like too much of a good opportunity to miss and I went for it.
“It definitely felt like a big risk, but at the same time, I take risks in other things I do like rock climbing, which is very much about managing risk. I’d taken the safe option for 20 years. It was time to give it a go.”
Once he had the keys, Joe gave himself a couple of weeks to set up and opened the doors to the café on 15 March.
The café itself features a counter where you can peruse the doughnuts and other menu items that are all available for either dining in or taking out. As well as the indoor seating, the café also boasts a lush green outside space, perfect for when this weather eventually picks up.
On the counter, you’ll find a selection of seven doughnuts, ranging from two to four pounds, including glazed ring doughnuts, all doughnuts and two vegan options. The premium doughnuts include the delicious sounding ‘millionaire’s doughnut’, which is Joe’s take on a millionaire shortbread in doughnut form, as well as the ‘lemony one’, a citrusy doughnut filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon icing and candied lemon peel.
To create these mouthwatering sweet treats, Joe is using all his experiences working both as an artisanal baker in recent years, and before that as a chef.
Joe said: “I worked up from the bottom as a chef and worked in all manner of places from gastro pubs to cafes and restaurants. One of the best times chefing, was for a tour operator, where I got to travel around Europe to the ski resorts, and then Sardinia in the summer.
“There’s definitely an Italian influence on my cookery, which will probably start coming through in the café when I start experimenting a bit more.”
For now though, Joe has been keeping it simple and tells us the response so far has been better than he could have imagined. He said: “The last two weeks have gone really well in terms of the growth of the business. All the feedback I get is really good.
“People love the doughnuts, which is why I do this. I probably would have quit cooking a long time ago if it wasn’t for that.
“Running my own business doesn’t feel like work as much as it used to when I was working 11 hours as a chef. It’s definitely been the right choice for me, and it’s been great to see some familiar faces coming in as regulars already.”
To find out more about Joe & Dough, give the a follow on social media @joeanddoughuk
