Sometimes the most unexpected encounters lead to an extraordinary outcome. This is the story of the chance meeting on a country road that led to Hot Numbers finding our perfect home.
An encounter by our Founder Simon Fraser
One sunny Sunday afternoon, it was time to blast the cobwebs off my old 1951 Sunbeam S7. Nilu, my fiancée, put a comfortable pillow on the rear mudguard (at least she had footpegs!) and off we set to our yet-unknown destination.
After a nice pint in the sun at the Fox and Hounds in Barley, we headed back along country roads with the Sunbeam purring happily. As we approached Fowlmere, a fellow biker flagged us down at the lights. He was amazed we were out on such a rare contraption, and one that he also owned! He invited us to join him over a cup of tea in Foxton to see his bike, and we obliged.
I like to think I'm spontaneous, and these chance encounters are what make life fun. This certainly turned out to be the case. Our fellow rider was John Wright of Wright's Mower Centre in Shepreth. John readily admits he wouldn't usually stop anyone the way he did, but something about us caught his eye - perhaps we weren't dressed like your typical bikers. He wanted to talk bikes, and we're glad he did.
John is a proper character.
He’s passionate about bikes, lawnmowers, greyhounds – we quickly found we had a lot in common!
I got to know John better over the next year. Then a situation arose where our landlords in Stapleford Granary were no longer comfortable with us roasting coffee on site, and it was time for a new home.
When I asked John if he knew anywhere to suit us locally, he instantly reached out saying he could rearrange some stock so we could set up in the back of his old building and workshops. It was incredibly kind of him, and he seemed to like the idea of fresh roasted coffee on site!
We moved the roaster in behind John’s lawnmower workshop during 2018.
It was always my vision to combine coffee roasting with a café, a kind of theatre where everyone can see the full process. I pushed my luck and asked John if there was any chance of renting the whole site so we didn't have to move again. He was very accommodating, relocating his entire operation over to a space on the other side of his lot.
We got to work renovating the building over the next year. No architects' plans, just pure passion, ideas and experience from renovating our two smaller sites - and lots of coffee to fuel us! But this site was different. It was a beast! Counter spaces were mocked up with bricks, industrial furniture was brought in to create the vibe, and we didn't forget John's old Raleigh motorbike, sitting proudly on the beam as a nod to how we came to be here.
So many people thought I was crazy setting up in an unknown location and spending so much fitting it out. I only know this because they told me afterwards! I never considered for one moment that it might not be a success. It was a space to roast coffee and bake bread for our town sites, and if local people came to buy a coffee and take a bag away, then great. What was not to work?
In April 2019, we opened the doors.
As with all our sites, we didn't shout too much, planning a soft launch, yet everyone seemed to find us. "How is it this busy?" they’d all ask, and I'd say, "Well, you found us!"
So here we are, six-and-a-half years later, and we're still excited to have The Roastery as our head office, the space where the theatre happens. The smell of fresh coffee drifts over our spacious garden under the cherry trees, overlooking the fields. The aroma of fresh baked bread and maybe a chocolate cake wafts out from the oven and transcends into the coffee shop. John's bike still gathers dust on the beam above, a reminder of that sunny Sunday afternoon when we met ‘on the beam’.
The message here is simple…
Follow your gut, have a conversation, and embrace the adventure. Like turning the page of a good book, you're never sure where that next chapter will take you, but be receptive when it feels right. It certainly can work out for everyone sometimes.
John is still drinking lots of coffee, I'm still making lots of coffee, and we’re both endlessly fixing broken equipment from our neighbouring workshops!
We also regularly host the start of the Distinguished Gentlemen's Ride together, where 300 motorbikes and their dapper riders show up to raise awareness for men's mental health and prostate cancer – but more on that another day.