Toast! – Lots of people come as customers and leave as friends

Reporter Ruby Anstee

Last week Saddleworth News were invited to visited Toast! Coffee and Wine Specialists in Delph.

On arriving the atmosphere was very cosy, the space full of wine packing cases and coffee sacks suggesting a wine cellar. The lighting was ambient and the aroma of coffee as I walked in delicious and very inviting.
Brian Hockenhall runs the business. It all started when Brian returned to the area, for family reasons, after working in Holland for Shell. He started by setting up a small coffee vendor stall in Ashton market, which is still there in the market hall but under different ownership.

He then decided to roast his own coffee and brought back a coffee roaster from Turkey. He set up his roaster in the back of Buckley’s Bakery in Uppermill, then found a unit in Saddleworth Business Park that was large enough to house the roaster and roomy enough to indulge in his interest for good wines, the space doubling up as a wine bar. He was proud to tell me that he sources his coffee beans carefully. He selects specialist suppliers who check the farms that sell the beans; they check what the quality of the schooling is, what quality the facilities of the co-ops are for the workers in an attempt to ensure ethical suppliers, so, he says, they go beyond Fairtrade.

Brian told Saddleworth News: “If you’re going to be Fairtrade one end, I need to be fair trade the other, so my coffee is only £1 a cup as it’s only flavoured water really.” I’m selective on the wines I buy, pretty good quality and sell at a reasonable mark-up. The inevitable result is that, on top of the bottle price, I charge £1 to drink the bottle in Toast! –Toast! thrives on the fact that there is no service at all. The whole idea is to make people realise the differential between self-service and how much we pay to be entertained by a waiter.

“I rely on people being honest and paying up for what they drink. Lots of people come as customers and leave as friends.”

When Saddleworth News asked Brian what his opening hours are he said: “I do open. Thursday Friday and Saturday at the moment. The right type of people come here, those that don’t want to go into Uppermill on a night.”
The Coffee and Wine Specialist venue an easy walk from Uppermill and has loads of onsite parking. Brain said: “Not too many people know about us but enough. We did once have 77 here although it’s at its best when there are around 30 people. We have lots of parties here, 50-60 in the last year – some of them really crazy! “

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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