Popular York coffee shop expands to meet demand
A popular York coffee shop has expanded into the next-door building after it had ‘outgrown itself’.
Spring Espresso closed last month for just over a week to receive, “love and TLC in the form of a refurbishment”. And now its smart new space is fully open.
The expansion was made possible after the sports store next door, Up and Running, moved onto Colliergate for a larger space themselves.
Spring Espresso founders Steve Dyson and Tracey Peck found their Fossgate branch was regularly full to bursting.
The couple always had intentions on increasing the size of Fossgate, even whilst opening the second shop on Lendal in 2016.
After meeting with the landlord and local Haxby builders, the expansion went ahead without any issues and has just opened.
The Fossgate shop now has double the kitchen size and extra staff to accommodate for the double number of covers available.
Husband and wife Steve and Tracey had experience with coffee before Spring Espresso. In 2005, Tracey started a mobile coffee van with an Australian concept of taking good coffee into the work place.
After 22 years of service in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Steve noticed “Aussie coffee was much more sophisticated than what we had in the UK,” and started his own coffee van in 2008. His air force background is echoed in the wings in the Spring Espresso brand.
Steve entered the United Kingdom Barista Championships and consistently finished in the top ten. This lead to the opening of Spring Espresso in November 2011, with £1,000 worth of coffee equipment.
The coffee Steve and Tracey made was about changing seasonally. The blends used reflect how the harvest changes, using small batches of high altitude arabica coffee.
The shop’s first years were successful, winning awards including UK’s best latte a year after opening – and winning the UK’s best tea the following year.
The same year the Lendal branch opened, Spring Espresso won the “Food and Drink Awards – Best Tea/Coffee Shop 2016.”
The couple continued their success winning TripAdvisor Travellers Choice ‘Best of the Best’ in 2020 among other prestigious achievements since they founded in 2011.