Welcome to Nooch
by Alex Harrowell (Nooch Co-founder)
Welcome! Here at Nooch we are lucky enough to have a management team that is not just passionate about food and the plant-based lifestyle, but we all like to dabble in a bit of writing too. So naturally, it only makes sense that we start a Nooch blog to give an insight into the inner workings of the business and the team but also to share recipes, ideologies and experiences with our followers. After all, these are the things that led us to create Nooch in the first place.
Luke and Alex, Nooch Owners/Founders
So as if running a restaurant, maintaining a couple of part-time jobs, and raising two little Nooch Recruits weren't enough - here we are blogging it all for your enjoyment.
Who are Nooch?
In addition to the 'About' page on this website let's explain a bit more about where Nooch came from. Luke is a chef; a very experienced, very versatile and very skilled chef. Ever since we met back in 2017, Luke has expressed his desire to open his own restaurant by the time he was 30 years young (he was 33, so almost made it). At the time that we started dating Luke was heading up the kitchen at The Foundry within the Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury- in fact, we met in a cocktail bar after his boss effectively forced him to join a night out after a full shift at the restaurant. We bonded over a love on Linkin Park and 28 Days Later and never looked back.
As our relationship progressed Luke moved on to work at what was his favourite restaurant in Shrewsbury at the time, with a bit of encouragement from me of course. He spent a couple of years working his way up through the ranks until he was eventually head chef and restaurant manager - splitting himself between two full time roles - and proving himself to be a natural at both sides of the business. Of course, it became clear that working for someone else is always going to be restrictive in some way, so we started looking out for potential venues for our own adventure.
We fell in love... again.
The opportunity to look at a local Café came to our attention in early 2022. We had a sneaky family lunch and scoped the place out a bit and just fell in love with the potential it had to offer. It is worth baring in mind that at this point we had 2 lovely children under 3 and had made our own transition into a plant-based lifestyle (more about that in a future post). The Café we had our sights set on had been a vegetarian café for over 40 years so it only made sense that going completely plant-based was a suitable metamorphosis.
The Good Life Cafe as it was for much of it's 40 year lifespan - Luke wouldn't let me keep the name but I do still love the reference to the 70's TV show starring Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal.
We set to work on a business plan, securing funds, reading contracts and creating our branding. Luckily Luke also has a degree in Marketing and Advertising (what can't this man do?) and made the whole re-brand one of the easiest tasks of the restaurant set-up! After a bit of redecorating and crowdfunding we finally opened our doors in December 2022.
Support
The incredible support of friends, family and followers has allowed us to make our dream come true. This is not to say we have met our #lifegoals yet - we still have some way to go and it has by no means been an easy ride thus far - but we are hopeful, humble and honored to be serving the best of plant-based deliciousness to the patrons of Shrewsbury and we welcome you into our Nooch family with open arms.
We are Nooch. Pleased to meet you.
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