If your experience of grabbing food before a train journey usually involves settling for a limp sandwich and an overpriced coffee, Cawa is hoping to change your expectations.
The South Yorkshire coffee company has officially opened its latest venue inside Sheffield Station, transforming the former First Class Lounge on Platform 5 into a brand-new café serving freshly baked pastries, loaded croissants and its own locally roasted coffee.
With cafés in Sheffield, Chesterfield, Barnsley and Nottingham train stations, as well as an outlet at Leeds City Bus Station, Cawa has built a reputation for doing things differently. Rather than offering standard grab-and-go fare, the business bakes fresh seven days a week and sources as many ingredients as possible from local suppliers.
“When you travel, your expectations of the food that’s available at most train stations and services are probably pretty low,” says Business Development Director Deon Jacobs. “So, we wanted to create something new.
“People drive to Tebay Services because the food’s very, very good. We’re kind of similar. People will actually jump on a train at Chesterfield rather than Sheffield because they want to buy something there. They know they’re going to get good quality.”
That quality-first approach runs throughout the business, which now employs around 80 people across six primary locations.
“We bake seven days a week, fresh, so we supply all our stores every day,” Deon explains. “From the milk to the flour, to the butter, whatever we can get locally, we do.”
While the new station café offers much of the existing Cawa menu, it’s been designed with commuters firmly in mind.
“It’s basically most of the products that we offer anyway, but what we try to do here is more of a fast-food offering,” says Deon. “People are very welcome to sit in, but a lot of customers will be catching a train, so they’ll come in and grab something. It’s going to be warm, it’s going to be fresh. We roast our own coffee as well, so it’s really, really good fresh products.”
Of course, no visit to Cawa is complete without one of its now-famous loaded croissants.
The business first grabbed international attention with its Fish Finger Croissant, which quickly went viral online and has since been joined by increasingly adventurous creations including Wagyu beef, chicken tikka and lamb doner fillings. It’s enough to make a few French bakers wince, but Deon is more than happy to defend the concept.
“With a croissant, because of the buttery side of things, it’s like a sandwich, but much creamier,” he says. “Instead of a dry sandwich, you’ve got a buttery pastry, with really nice filling.”
The Platform 5 site also marks something of a homecoming for the business. “We’ve been wanting to get onto Sheffield Station for a long time,” says Deon. “This is our home, and I think the station is the first place a lot of people see when they come into the city. We want to offer something that shows the kind of feeling that Sheffield is about.”
The new café has retained the character of the historic First Class Lounge while giving the space a fresh lease of life.
“Our vision was simple – to respect the character and heritage of this remarkable space whilst creating something fresh, welcoming and relevant for the future,” Deon says. “We didn’t want it to be somewhere people just grab a coffee before a train. We wanted it to be somewhere people can meet, work, connect and enjoy being part of Sheffield life.
“Whether you’re a daily commuter or a visitor arriving in the city for the first time, we hope this becomes a place where people feel welcome.”
Given the choice between another disappointing station meal or a viral fish finger croissant and freshly roasted coffee, we know which platform we’re heading for.
For more info, check out Cawa’s socials: @cawacoffee
