A new takeaway will open this week offering a tried and tested menu of sweet and savoury dishes from a couple well-known on the food circuit.
Gill and Weller de Oliveira have launched yet another foodie outlet – this time on the high street.
The Olive Tree Kitchen is an extension of their existing baking business of the same name, which has provided a home delivery service of cakes and sandwiches.
The couple operated The Olive Tree Cafe at Logie Steading for 12 years. However, juggling a seven-day-a-week business with bringing up a young family, they decided to sell up and run a home bakery business from their… well, their home!
Many will also remember Olive, the vintage fire truck they bought and converted into a mobile food outlet, which operated at Findhorn Beach most of the year.
Now they are pooling their resources to start a new chapter of foodservice.
Gill said since leaving the cafe, they missed the daily interaction with customers, so they started looking around for a small shop and have bought the premises at 45 High Street, formerly ‘Finishing Touches’, fitted it out as a takeaway with a kitchen, and they’re busy putting their own finishing touches to the shop before opening this week.
What’s on the menu?
Their latest venture combines what they’ve learned as a result of operating all three businesses and combines them. “We’ll stop using the food van as a daily outlet, and use it just for events,” said Gill.
“We’ll continue to take orders online, and the high street shop will now become the collection point for the bakery instead of going door-to-door. And with the new shop, people can pop in and buy snacks, meals and drinks to take away.
“It’s good to get back into savoury meals. I think that’s what we missed with the van.
“We’ll be doing all our home-made cakes, and we’ll have cold cakes as well, like cheesecakes. We’ll have soup and we’re going to have frozen, home-made meals for one or two people, frozen soup, and possibly frozen pasta sauce. We’ve got a chicken curry, cottage pie, vegan curry, chilli, and everything is made here.
Weller added: “We stopped the cafe because we were trying to bring up three kids, and it was just a lifestyle decision. We had the most amazing staff, but equally it was our responsibility and we were reliant on lots of other people to run such a huge thing.”
“The van was absolutely brilliant. It was super busy, but we were very reliant on weather. And we kept getting sand in the generator!
Staying small
“We’re going to be take away only. We don’t have room for tables, although that’s exactly what we wanted. We just thought that the bigger you get, then you need staff and everything else.”
Gill complemented the high street and the town in general as a place to do business.
“Forres is just such a lovely place. Everyone knows everyone and the high street is beautiful.
“It’s growing too. The more we’ve been down here, the more you realise how busy it is. It’s such a vibrant little town, and there’s lots of lovely businesses on the high street now.”
The Olive Tree Kitchen is at 45 High Street, and opening hours are 8:30am to 4pm. Keep an eye on their Facebook page to find out when they open their doors for the first time this week.
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