It’s the inn place for cobs!
IT was all hands on deck on the opening day of a new cob shop.
Mum Danni Hutchings and daughter Jasmine, 16, had their aprons on ready, while the youngest member of the family, William, nine, was sporting his specially made pinny embroidered with “Little Boss Man”.
They’re the team behind The Cob Inn, in Chilwell Road, Beeston, which replaces former sandwich shop Snap following its closure last year. A variety of breakfast cobs, cold cobs, salads, burgers, jacket potatoes and toasties are on sale, plus drinks and sweet treats from the Beeston Brownie Company.
Danni is no stranger to hospitality – she and husband Andy also have the Crusty Cob Shop in Castle Boulevard, which has just celebrated its third anniversary, and before that the duo ran pubs for more than a decade.
The new premises are like “coming home” for Danni, who is Beeston born and bred.
She was on holiday in Tunisia when her friend, who works for an estate agent, messaged her about the shop coming up for rent.
Danni, who is also mum to Scarlet, 19, said: “I’d seen pictures and it looked perfect. When we got back home we came to see it but it was dark as there was no electricity.
“We could just about see what was going on. We took it and signed the lease back in November.”
But then the landlord threw a spanner in the works by putting the building up for sale.
“It all fell through. I was gutted,” said Danni. “Me being me, I was thinking what I could do? So I bought a horsebox to do coffee, cake and toasties which I’ve still got at my dad’s yard. I picked that up on the Thursday and then on the Monday the estate agent rang and said the cob shop is back up if you want it as we’ve found a buyer for the building.
We were first on the list if they wanted a new tenant.”
Without a shadow of a doubt the answer was “yes”.
The family have spent the last three weeks painting and decorating ready for opening.
“It’s been a hard slog. I’ve ripped it apart. I had a vision of what I wanted, like a rustic deli vibe and hopefully that is what I’ve created,” said Danni.
“I have an ethos of supporting local businesses. Vic from Beeston Brownies has been with us from the start. We use 200 Degrees coffee and I have set up with another local company, Mr Pitchfork’s Pickles. We get our bread from Adkins, a local bakery. We also sell packets of cobs and their bread.”
As well as running the cob shop, which closes at 2pm Monday to Friday and 1pm Saturday, Danni plans to continue her work as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist.
“I’m still going to do it part-time. I don’t want to leave it because I love it. I used to be in hospitality with Andy running pubs all over the country but seven years ago I decided I wanted to come back to Nottingham and settle. We’d moved around so much with the pubs, like 16 times in 15 years, and one of our daughters went to eight different primary schools.
“The pub industry was stressful, working 100 hours a week. I’d still be there until 2am some nights. I love hospitality and the banter you get with customers so having a little cob shop is the happy medium. I can still do my therapy so it’s a good worklife balance rather than slogging your guts out in a pub for 100 hours a week and you’ve no family life.”
The family have different favourites when it comes to their cob fillings. It’s coronation chicken for William, chicken and bacon for Jasmine, and lime and coriander chicken for Danni but they all agree on one thing... it’s a “cob”.
“We run away,” joked William, who can be seen legging it down the street in a Tiktok video if customers gave it a different name.