The Dream Team: Small But Mighty

When The Whistle Stop Café found its rhythm, the space was buzzing - not just with the hum of the coffee machine or the clatter of baking trays, but the energy of the people who brought it all together. Our kitchen is tiny by any standards. Sure, it would have been spacious if it were just a kitchen, but it isn't. It is the beating heart of the café, serving both the kitchen and the front of house, and with that kind of set up, every inch counts.

At one end of the kitchen, the service hatch: the coffee machine, and the cake counter, which has 12 different individual cakes, three types of scones, and two types of savoury croissants, all waiting to be devoured. But as much as the counter looks inviting, it takes up half the kitchen space. the other end of the space is for baking and cooking, and when you consider the volume of what we made last year - we baked 19,000 cakes in that tiny space!- it’s a juggling act.

But back to the beginning. That’s when the dream team entered: Catherine and Ellie.

Ellie - The Coffee Queen with a Wit Like No Other

Ellie was a force to be reckoned with. She started behind the coffee machine, and it didn't take long for her to make her mark. Her sense of humour was wicked, and I lost count of how many times I was left in fits of giggles as we worked side by side. But it wasn't just her quick wit that made her a favourite- it was her ability to connect with our customers, especially the older ones. She had a knack for making everyone feel like they were part of the family, which, in the café world is a rare gift. The regulars adored her, and I could always count on her to bring a smile to anyone's face, no matter how busy we got.

Catherine-The Quiet Strength Behind the Scenes

Then there was Catherine. When she first came on board, I won't lie, I wondered if she'd last. I expected a lot, and without that grounding in professional kitchens, it can feel like being thrown in at the deep end. .And while I knew she was capable, the reality of the café was another beast entirely. It's one thing to be able to bake, but it's another to be able to juggle multiple tasks all at once in a small high-pressure environment.

It's a baptism of fire for sure. The kind of fire where you're not just cooking one order at a time, you're juggling multiple orders, all the different stages, while the coffee machine is hissing, cakes are being served , and customers are lining up outside the hatch. It's a fine line between "just about dealing with it" and complete chaos. And it doesn't always take a table saying they had the wrong order - oh no, sometimes they just eat it and don't say anything. Can you imagine the chaos in the kitchen then?

Suddenly we're missing a dish that no one even flagged, the tickets are flying . Panic sets in. Someones ‘s waiting, someones ‘s eaten something they weren't meant to, and now the kitchen's gone into full whodunnit - trying to trace what went where, all the while, flipping eggs, serving cakes, and keeping the coffee flowing. It's enough to make you question everything, including your own sanity.

But Catherine? She rose to the challenge and within six months of joining us, she was thrown into one of the most intense kitchen experiences: cooking brunch for 177 park runners every Saturday morning. Imagine that -177 Lycra-clad runners descending on the café at pretty much the same time, depending on how fast or slow they were on their 5k run. You can sink or swim in moments like that, and let me tell you, Catherine didn't just swim- she thrived.

And every Saturday, without fail, there was that moment. The one where we'd catch each others eye across the cramped kitchen just as the crowd swelled outside. No words needed. Just a shared look that said Oh my god....brace yourselves.

And then? We got stuck in. Two hours of pure adrenaline. No breaks, no breathers. Just full-tilt service until, finally, the last runner was fed.

And Catherine, despite the fire, learned to stand in it. She didn’t just cope, she got good. Really good.

We weren't just making brunch, we were building something special, one chaotic Saturday at a time. And somehow, through the madness, sweat, and shared glances of panic, a little cafe with a tiny kitchen and a dream team became something people came back to, week after week.

Sure, we were exhausted, slightly shell shocked, and probably still had hollandaise in our hair-and flour on our shoes but we'd done it. Again. And with five more hours of service ahead, there was no time to dwell. Just enough time to breath, laugh, and make more coffee.

But about a year later, everything changed. COVID hit- and with it, the café as we knew it was turned completely upside down.