Greggs goes Posh!

Cool, quirky, stylish.

I love the Newcastle skyline lampshades

If you were asked to pick three words that describe Greggs, the stalwart of the Geordie diet, these might not be the first ones you’d pick.  You might go for “Ooh hot pasties!” or “Bag of jam donuts!” or if you want to go way over your word limit “Why don’t they sell vegetable pasties in Newcastle like they do in London?”, a persistent gripe of mine. 

Greggs is close to every Geordie’s heart, from our first toothless suck on a bit of puff pastry to the “double decker” pasty trick  that Wayne taught me (two pasties, one bag; nobody will ever know your secret). There is a Greggs on every street corner in Newcastle, sometimes two. The Greggs on Clayton St in the city centre is open until 4am at the weekend doing sterling work for the inebriated. There are two Greggs at Newcastle Airport, one at Arrivals and one at Departures, allowing the jetsetting Geordie to minimise his time away from a sausage roll.

Greggs has now upped its game with Greggs Moment, their new trial coffee shop on Northumberland Street. Its décor is cool, quirky and stylish. It’s clean, comfortable and well-staffed. It sells LOADS of cake.

The sandwiches, cakes, biscuits, cupcakes, muffins and scones are all very reasonably priced. For example, my pre-lunch snack of a cream tea (scone, jam, clotted cream and a pot of tea) is a mere £3, which barely buys you a cup of hot grit in some other high street cafes.

Greggs Moment was chock-a-block on a Friday morning and I am sure the trial café will be a big success. For the time being at least, it’s exclusive to Geordies. London can keep its fancy vegetable pasties – we’ve got posh Greggs!