The area of Kings Heath has an active food community and with its long high street filled with shops, businesses, pubs, cafes and restaurants, we know there is a place for The Early Bird Bakery to bring something new and different to the residents of Kings Heath and the neighbouring areas.
We want to create a relaxed environment in our café, where you can grab a pastry on your way to work; a casual brunch with your friends, or a break with a coffee and kids’ milkshake after busy day of shopping.
Our Vision:
Part of our philosophy is to bake and serve everything on the same day using only the finest, and wherever possible, locally sourced ingredients. Our attention to detail will extend to all our offerings with our coffee roasted locally by aficionados Hundred House Coffee.
Our long-term goal is to be a business with a social conscious; providing real opportunities for people to work, learn and develop within the hospitality sector. We have a strong passion for developing new talent and providing a platform for new food ideas and enterprises. We want to create a different work environment to enable people to gain the skills and confidence to facilitate these hopes and visions, to build a rewarding career in catering.
We also recognise there is a demand for ethically fair-traded ingredients and vegetarian/vegan alternatives. We will be making this an integral part of our business vision, to reduce waste, work with local providers and provide delicious alternatives to the tasty cakes we all know and love.
Our Story:
Tim Coward, our pastry chef, has worked in the industry for the last ten years. His career began in Birmingham and from here he has travelled the world working in Australia and Malaysia. His background is in 5* hotels and he has run the pastry kitchen at some of the most prestigious hotels in the UK.
Tim C came back to Birmingham in January 2017 and ran a stall selling his cakes and pastries at some of the local food festivals over the summer, including the Kings Heath street festival and Digbeth Dining Club. It was while he was running a stall at the Birmingham Coffee Festival in 2017 that he met Tim Guidotti.
Being of Italian heritage, Tim G has always had a passion for food and coupled with his eye for promising new business, they decided to join forces.
Tim’s brother, Joe, completes the founding Early Bird team. Joe has a background in business management and, like his brother, has a strong passion for food, coffee and people – key values of the Early Bird Bakery.
Now that the perfect venue on Kings Heath High St has been found, the team are excited to open and share their talents and love for food with Birmingham.
Our Request:
We have invested a lot of our own money but setting up a coffee shop is expensive, particularly when there is much work to be on the property to reach the standard we expect for our customers. We have taken on a huge challenge and will be completing a lot of the renovations ourselves, before our local builders commence this week with the improvements and fit out.
As we are a start-up, every penny donated is going to be used preciously. We are conscious of using as many recycled but high-quality materials as possible. We have also contracted a dedicated team of local trades people to help with the refurb, as well as an incredibly supportive network of family and friends.
If we can successfully raise £3,500 then we can ensure our chefs have the best kitchen equipment in which to prepare the delicious, seasonal bakes which will cater to all, including kids, vegan, gluten-free, nut-free amongst others. We want to be able to purchase a top of the range Rational combi oven. This will mean we have a highly precise, fan-assisted and steam injected vessel within which to bake all our croissants, tarts, bread etc. We want to produce the best we can and we believe that this machine will help us to do this.
Any further donations above the target will go towards a deep fat fryer which we allow us to produce some funky flavoured doughnuts and some other kitchen equipment to produce the unique bakes.
In return for pledging funds to The Early Bird Bakery, we have created a selection of tiered rewards which are mostly around offering free food and drink once we are open for business in Autumn 2018. We are also rewarding some pledges with a VIP invite to our launch event.
We are really excited about this opportunity and we hope that friends, family, the community in Kings Heath, foodies and crowd funding devotees will all get behind us so we can open the doors this Autumn.
How it works:
Please select the amount you wish to pledge from the list. If we reach our target of £3,500 within 4 weeks we will be successfully funded and your pledged funds will be transferred to us using the method you select. If we don't reach our target then your money will be refunded.
We have set some stretch targets as with more than £3,500 we can make The Early Bird Bakery even better. More details on the stretch targets will pop up once we have met our target.
Please share a link to our Indiegogo site with others so we can spread the word as far as possible and also follow us on our Facebook and Instagram pages where we will keep you updated on our progress to opening day.
If you have chosen a pledge which includes a VIP invite to our launch party then we will send this via email (as long as you give us a valid email address!). Once we are officially open, the free food and drink rewards can be redeemed – some rewards may require advance notice or reservations so please do get in touch to book these in.
Thank you so much for your support and we look forward to welcoming you soon,
The Early Bird Bakery
