The Drift Story: The success so far (Part 3)
What a journey it has been so far. Having opened in the summer of 2018, we were lucky as we enjoyed wall-to-wall sunshine, azure blue seas and many, many visitors to Drift.
It didn’t take long for word to spread about us, thanks to support from the East Lothian Courier and a couple of press releases to shout about the fact we had opened our doors and were now serving.
Many of our customers were simply driving past and couldn’t resist the urge to investigate, pleasantly surprised to find we served coffee and homemade cake. We were also popular amongst holidaymakers who would visit us several times throughout their trips and we had a surge of people from easy to reach destinations such as Edinburgh and North Berwick.
Thankfully, the demand was thriving for our products and we had built up a wonderful customer base, however with success brings challenge. With our swiftly growing popularity, baking 200 slices of cake per day in sweltering heat in an 8ft x 8ft kitchen was a little bit of a challenge.
Word spread quickly about some of our homemade treats and soon enough our carrot and chocolate Guinness cake became two firm favourites on our menu – they still remain on the menu today, for this reason.
All cakes are made in the Drift kitchen
We knew we had to start small by simply offering coffee and cake, we were keen to walk before we started sprinting. Yes, we had experience in hospitality, however, doing this whilst running your own business was a whole other ball game.
Since the beginning, it has been of great importance to both of us to ensure we sourced produce that was local to Scotland and where possible, East Lothian, and that even included our coffee.
We first met the owner of Alfie Coffee at the Royal Highland Show back in 2016. An independent, air dry roasting coffee business based in Glasgow, we fell in love with the coffee instantly and struck up a conversation to find out more. Ahead of opening, we got in touch again and five years later our partnership continues and we have become great friends.
Alfie Coffee retail bags also sold at Drift using the same Bahia bean
It didn’t take long before we introduced scones to our menu as we were being asked on a regular basis and it was important we gave our customers what they wanted.
Plain, fruit and cheese with butter, Galloway Lodge raspberry or strawberry jam and for a special treat, Roddick’s clotted cream became and has remained a favourite amongst customers.
At this time, our kitchen team were working excellently together and they started to think about how we could meet different dietary requirements so everyone could enjoy our offering.
We quickly added dairy-free scones to the menu and we have since introduced various new flavours including cherry scones which are popular.
What’s been interesting throughout our journey is seeing how customers view the business and what their expectations are. With our USP being a stunning, uninterrupted view of the Firth of Forth with the iconic Bass Rock standing proud, it’s simple to see why people would think this would be an obvious location for lunch.
Drift boasts amazing sea views from its clifftop vantage point
And lunch was of huge interest, so in November of 2018, we introduced a freshly made soup each morning with a focus on seasonal Scottish produce which was available to us. A light lunch followed with the introduction of a cheese scone, butter, Mull of Kintyre cheddar and Galloway Lodge poacher’s pickle. This went down a treat with those who enjoyed a scone instead of a cake – now they could have both.
However, with our growing popularity, within eight months we needed to install a new washing system as our estimation of visitor numbers had been vastly overlooked. But we were growing in confidence and ready to make another move and shift our food offering so we also invested in another kitchen.
Freshly made soup using seasonal produce
A second kitchen allowed us to serve brunch which was perfect for customers who visited first thing in the morning and didn’t necessarily want cake. The Drift roll became a hot talking point (it still is), who would have thought herb aioli, fresh spinach, bacon and a fried egg stacked within a brown roll would be such a hit? But it was and it met our vision of offering something with a point of difference.
Reaching the end of our first year we had welcomed over 80,000 visitors, employed over 20 members of staff, upgraded our washing area, added a new kitchen and increased our menu.
It was an incredible rollercoaster of a year, with many highs and many times where we felt like we were running at 100 miles per hour. However, it was at this time that we became selected to be the East Central Monitor Farmers to the Scottish Enterprise Agritourism Project which was a real honour.
It was perfect timing for us to make further changes and to help us to grow and improve in all areas, we would soon find out how helpful this would be.