The quirky business that serves up horseriding and cocktails
NORTHUMBERLAND may have Michelin Star restaurants, cosy cafes, and fantastic fish and chips by the seaside, but can you get a cocktail at a riding stables?
It turns out you can, and have been able to for a year now as one of the county’s more unusual eateries celebrated its one-year anniversary earlier this month.
Tea in the Paddock, on the A196 between Morpeth and Guide Post has built up quite a loyal following in its first year, not only for its food and drinks, but its events and making people feel that ‘they’re on their holidays.’
Una Young has run the Paddock Hall Equestrian Centre for years and originally served teas, coffees and bacon sandwiches to parents as their children had riding lessons.
Though originally dismissing the idea because the stables are in ‘the wilds of wannie,’ parents continued to encourage her and the idea wouldn’t go away, with Una starting to put plans together all the way back in 2017.
Everything was almost in place for Tea in the Paddock to open its doors in September 2019, but unsure how it would fare over the winter months, Una decided to wait until the following Easter to ‘make a bigger splash.’
However, we all know what happened in March 2020 – but that forced Una to change plans once again. Una said: “In lockdown I was lying in bed, looking at Facebook and everyone’s posting about how much they miss the pub, they wish they could get a pint or a cocktail.
“So I thought my coffee shop needs a drinks licence!”
Finally opening on April 12, 2021, four years after the seed was planted, a queue of cars waited outside, with just two chefs and six tea towels to wash the handful of coffee cups Una had expected to serve. That day, she was a traffic warden on top of everything else, and since then Tea in the Paddock has gone from strength to strength, attracting regulars from all across the North East – and even as far as Scotland.
Una continued: “We’ve got regulars from Amble and Consett and there’s one guy who comes from Hexham every Saturday. There’s even a lady who comes here often from Jedburgh – I got a late licence on New Year’s Eve just so she could see in the new year here!”
Una has built up more than 8,000 Facebook followers in the last year and her review score is 4.9 from 169 reviews. She said: “I couldn’t say myself what the secret to our success is, but my customers tell me I’ve done well with Facebook and it’s how I come across to them – they all say there’s a personal family touch which they can see when they get here. It could also be the cocktails!”
Cocktails at Tea in the Paddock are all made fresh on site – ‘no tins or the pump stuff you can buy,’ Una tells me. And a Pornstar Martini outside in the sun has some guests feeling that they’re in the Med – even if it’s just for a fleeting moment.
Una continued: “People tell us all the time that it’s like being abroad
when they sit outside, it reminds them of being on their holidays. We’ve even had people coming with their laptops for a couple of hours, going home, and then coming back in the night time for drinks or dinner and it feels like an escape from it all.”
But one thing that Una can’t escape from, like many people, is the cost of living crisis. When we spoke, she hadn’t yet put up her prices, but that’s likely to come soon.
She said: “We’re worried. You’ve got to put your prices up and we haven’t done that yet as we’re frightened people aren’t going to come.
“But that cost has to go somewhere. When I go shopping for general stuff from the cash and carry, I used to get a whole trolley for £500 and now it’s about three quarters for the same money.
“We’ve also got the gas heaters outside and the electricity has just gone up. It’s gone from £350 to £850 a month and I’ve had a letter saying it’s going to go up another £2,500 a year, it’s a nightmare.”
However, the increase in costs has not dented Una’s ambition or enthusiasm for her project. Next up is a kids’ play park and an outdoor drinking area, which she’s keen not to call a beer garden.
And incredibly, she’s still running the stables too, which brought her here 16 years ago from Whitley Bay.
She continues: “The horses are still my passion and my hobby, and with the cafe it’s a 24/7 job.
“I don’t take a break very often. Every so often my body conks out and I get a migraine or something and I have to go to bed!”
Overall, things look good for Tea in the Paddock, though Una still isn’t exactly sure how to bill the eatery. She continues: “I don’t know what we are really. We say we’re funky, quirky and al fresco, but are we a bistro or a wine bar? I don’t know.
“But people love eating here and they love the view. And we love our customers!”
For more information on Tea in the Paddock, visit its Facebook page.