Popular Kettering village café re-opens - and it's ham, egg and chips that's its bestseller so far

Café Oak, a Youth Works project, not only provides great value home-cooked meals, drinks and snacks but will also provide work and training opportunities for young people.

Students at the alternative provision school will work alongside staff members, giving them ‘real world’ work experience serving food and helping front of house.

York Works CEO Cindy Wrighting has swapped her office in Kettering’s Keystone Centre for the kitchen at the cafe and has admitted it’s been hard work.

She said: “It’s been a baptism of fire. The idea was to have a low-key opening but it’s been relentless – which is lovely.”

Open from 8am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday, and from 9am to 5pm on Sundays, the team have been serving breakfast, lunch and tea-time treats to eager customers.

As well as villagers popping in for a post-gym coffee, visitors have been enjoying the refurbished dining area and spacious garden.

Top of the picks from the menu so far have been no-nonsense meals – full English breakfast and ham, egg and chips.

Cindy said: “Ham, egg and chips has been the most popular so far, that and the full English. We will develop the menu based on feedback from customers. I’ve been cooking, getting the hang of the layout of the kitchen. We have things we have had to overcome. On Saturday, we couldn’t light the oven.”

To make the food on offer as sustainable as possible, The Green Patch in Kettering will be supplying seasonal produce to the cafe. The fruit and veg will be used to create mouth-watering meals.

The start of term in September will see the student workforce take on a programme of accredited barista training from Corby-based coffee experts Baby Barista.

An official launch has been planned after the summer holidays. The cafe will be applying for a licence to serve alcohol for a proposed supper club.

Cindy added: “I’d like to thank Paul Johnson and Gordon Binley for all their hard work transforming the cafe in a week.”