Sharrowvale Road favourite Pom Kitchen has been serving its local community with vegan deli treats since 2017, and its owner has now revealed plans to open a second location in Crookes this summer.
Work is about to begin to deck out the vacant unit that formerly housed Priceless Discount Store with Pom’s signature style, and the new, much bigger site is set to offer even more of all the good stuff we love about the neighbourhood cafe.
The new site is roughly three times the size of its Sharrowvale Road counterpart and will give owner Zora Hamaidia the opportunity to offer all the coffee, cakes, bakes and sandwiches available at the OG café, alongside an extended retail section showcasing makers and producers from across the UK, and an exciting sounding all-vegan deli counter featuring artisan ‘meats and cheeses.’
Zora told Exposed: “The emphasis will be on takeaway, for sure. Deli style, so some sandwiches, pastries, salads and we will be doing a breakfast offering for which there will be probably be a maximum of twelve seats, so you’ll have to get in quick!
“Also, we’re going to have a full vegan deli – I’m really excited about this. We’re going to have a chiller cabinet with cheeses and meats and then loads of different vegan products. Things people want to come back for again and again. Because it’s so big, we’ve also got a space that’s marked out just for retail.
“Quite a lot of the producers just do small batches of chutneys, jams, peanut butters, hot sauces, and that kind of thing, and then the cheeses that we want to work with are like super small artisan vegan cheese producers. I have tried some amazing cheeses! We’ll also have things like smoked salmon gravlax, made with carrot. I think it’ll be really good.”
Zora has been keen to take on another venture in Sheffield for a while, and after mulling over various other options such as bars and restaurants, she decided to stick to what she knows and open a second Pom in another suburb, hoping to create a similar neighbourhood feel.
“The Sharrowvale community was so good to us in lockdown, I just really wanted to do something else in Sheffield”, says Zora, “and then I thought to myself, why am I trying to do something that I don’t know anything about? I can do this – I’ve just finally got the hang of it!
“I have a customer in Crookes and she said to me a few times ‘you should really be in Crookes, people would love it up there.’ I’m not totally familiar with the area, really, but she told me about a unit in a really good position, so I went to have a look, and I just really liked it.
“As soon as I stepped inside, it just felt right, even though it’s a bit of a mess. I had the same feeling that I had when I walked in here and just thought, ‘right, let’s try it.’”
Because of it’s size, the new space will afford Zora the opportunity to try things she hasn’t had the chance to do in Sharrowvale. She explained: “Because the opening hours will be the same as here – 8am – 4.30pm every day, there will be an emphasis on mornings and lunches, but hopefully there is some scope to do a couple of evenings.
“The space means I’ll be able to do things that I’ve wanted to do for ages, but because we are so limited down here, and I constantly have crazy ideas, it’s just impossible. We’ve got so much space there, you know, the sky’s the limit.
“I’m so excited. I’m really thrilled, actually. I’m just looking forward to getting started and to have our first day and see people’s reactions.
“I’m a little bit nervous but everyone’s been so nice, particularly the other businesses in the area, and we’ve had a really good response on social media, so I’m feeling confident.
For updates in the meantime, go give Pom a nudge on their socials.
