A café promising “over the top hot chocolates, milkshakes with cupcakes on top and freshly baked cakes” is set to open in Norwich.

The café will be part of Leslie Terrance Home, in Magdalen Street, which has grown its customers base against the odds after owner Kerri Notman secured a strong online following during the pandemic.

Ms Notman, who took around 4,000 plants home to continue to stock and trade during the first lockdown, has said she will open the café within her shop as soon as government restrictions are lifted.

She said: “We’re currently using the shop as a bit of a warehouse. Our online orders are still very busy and lockdown has given us the opportunity to get our full stocklist on the website as well as some blog posts written.

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“Of course lockdown has been a really tough situation for the whole country but there has been a bit of a silver lining for us in that it’s allowed us to do all the building work needed for the café.”

Ms Notman has taken over the entire building at 128 Magdalen Street as well as converting the basement which will also be used for the café.

Within the shop she has also built a tree house to cater to families with children coming into the shop.

She said: “A few things have been slightly delayed because of the virus – taste testing the locally baked cakes and coffee we’ll stock for example. At first we’ll be doing coffees, cakes, savoury pastries and dessert drinks - really over the top hot chocolate with all the toppings like cream and marshmallows, and milkshakes with brownies and cupcakes on top. “We won’t be doing brunch and meals because we don’t want to build a full kitchen on-site and then go into another lockdown. We’ll see how it goes first.”

Ms Notman and her staff have not been furloughed during the second lockdown.

“We’re still really busy with click and collect and online orders so we haven’t had to furlough anyone. We’ve also recently started selling on Facebook marketplace which is great because it means I can chat to our customers a bit more,” she said.