A Danish baker who built up a following delivering pastries on her bike around Norwich is taking the business up a gear by opening a café in the city.
Maggie Christensen, 31, moved to Norwich from Denmark in 2017 and taught herself to make authentic Danish pastries as she missed them living the UK.
Miss Christensen then began delivering them, along with fresh lemonade, on a cargo bike to offices, homes and wholesale to local businesses.
In 2019, she stopped deliveries as she had outgrown her kitchen and while she continued to supply homemade rye bread to Rainbow Whole Foods, she focused on opening a shop with an on-site bakery.
She has now taken on a premises at Unit 1 in St Augustines Gate, a former Chinese takeaway, and it is set to open in April and will be called Frå.kost, which means lunch in Danish, and the food will all be plant-based.
Miss Christensen's business partner is Aaron Pritty, 23, who runs Norwich-based mobile coffee company Lono Espresso, and he will be the manager and supply Danish coffee.
Miss Christensen said: "We are going to be a Danish eatery taking inspiration from the Scandinavian slow-living lifestyle with porridges, open sandwiches on baked rye bread, pastries, cakes and home-brewed kombucha.
"It is a little bit scary as it is my first time doing something like this, but I am excited to have a dedicated space where customers can experience this whole vision I have.
"There is a market for getting back-to-basics and the decision to do plant-based is about using low process and I believe a lot of people will enjoy the food."
While there will be inside seating, the pair are planning to focus on takeaways and deliveries when they open due to the lockdown restrictions.
She added: "What we really like is it has this industrial feel and we are going to open it up so there is an open bakery with a view into the whole production line.
"We will be focusing on setting up a good home delivery structure to start and it is a really lovely neighbourhood in NR3."
See the latest updates on the @fraa.kost Instagram page.
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