The millennial family with a Visit England food award
Siblings Sam and Mollie Chapman run Helmsley’s Vinehouse Cafe and won a Visit England Food and Drink award for their efforts. Grace Newton speaks to the pair.
SAM AND Mollie Chapman haven’t even reached 30 yet – but they run the only Yorkshire catering business to be recognised by Visit England for its quality food and drink offering.
The brother and sister, 29 and 25, own the Vinehouse Cafe at Helmsley Walled Garden, which was handed a Quality Food and Drink accolade in Visit England’s 2019 tourism awards.
They took over the business in 2016, and have converted the gardens’ Victorian glasshouses and vinery into a warm, welcoming licensed cafe that serves innovative food with a vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free focus and where grapes dangle invitingly from the ceiling.
The siblings grew up in York and their parents, Nigel and Sue, ran a mobile catering company, but their connection with Helmsley began when the family bought the town’s Italian restaurant, Gepetto’s.
They moved to Appleton-le-Moors to be closer to their new business before Sue and Sam added the Vinehouse Cafe, with views of Helmsley Castle, to their portfolio.
Sue has now taken a step back and Mollie has joined Sam in the kitchen.
Currently, both the cafe and the walled gardens – which were originally laid out to provide fresh produce for the nearby Duncombe Park estate before being leased out as a commercial enterprise after the First World War until 1982 – are open seasonally between April and October.
The difficulties with heating the glasshouses mean that winter trading is impractical.
“The cafe is just a lovely place to sit, with the gardens and the views of Helmsley Castle.
“We use produce from the gardens in our menu and we have a flower garden for herbs,” explains Mollie, who now lives in Malton.
“We get a really good age range of customers, from yummy mummies to older, retired people.
“Helmsley is an affluent town and people seem to like our style – we make our scones fresh every morning.
“We would like to open in winter, but the vinehouses can get really cold – although there are some plans to possibly rebuild them in future.”
They also host weddings, christenings and other events in conjunction with the gardens, which were restored from 1994 and offer a programme of social and therapeutic horticulture.
“We’d like to start opening in the evenings this summer, and introduce live music. We are licensed to serve drinks.”
Mollie also feels the Vinehouse, which takes its name from the vines that grow inside, stands apart from the traditional food and drink scene in the market town.
“There are a lot of cafes in Helmsley, but most are tearooms and quite oldfashioned.
“We are trying to do something different – we don’t serve anything with chips.
“Most of the other cafe owners are older and have had their businesses for years, so it’s unusual for us to be younger.
“Helmsley has a lot of potential – there’s an artisan bakery opening soon and every time a shop goes up for sale, there is always interest in it.”
Through its visitor attraction accolades, national tourism agency Visit England celebrates excellence within the sector and highlights places that go the extra mile to provide a high quality day out.
This could be through a warm welcome, an engaging story, a delicious lunch or the overall visitor experience.
There were 10 winners in Yorkshire in 2019 including Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Hepworth Wakefield, Castle Howard, RHS Harlow Carr and the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery in Driffield.
Visit www.vinehousecafehelmsley.co.uk
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