decent packaging

With their ever-changing monthly sandwich menu and inventive pastry selection, Cosgriff & Sons is a must-visit if you find yourself in York. We had the pleasure of chatting with Janet Cosgriff about the journey to where they are today and their long-standing partnership with decent.

Hi Janet! Would you mind explaining a bit about Cosgriff & Sons Sourdough and how it came to be what it is today? 

Yep. So it started during the first lockdown. We had my youngest son, he was premature and only weighed a kilogram, we also found out at the same time that he had Down Syndrome. We were in the hospital a lot as he was very poorly. Then lockdown happened, and only a few months after that, Paul also broke his hip. 

It was this massive thing of one minute you think your life's gonna, I suppose, pan out one way and then things happen. Paul realised at this time, he couldn't go back to work as a full time chef. He'd been working in lots of fine dining restaurants, he’s got a wealth of knowledge with food. So he started making sourdough at home and invested a lot more time into that.

Whilst recovering from his broken hip, he spent a long time looking at recipes, behind the science of sourdough - creating, learning and mastering this skill. I suppose it also kept his mind preoccupied of all the stuff that was happening with our youngest in and out of hospital. I think it was very therapeutic for him. 

He ended up giving some loaves to his friends and then friends of friends. Then he started getting messages from people asking. The people of York are so supportive. Once our youngest son was spending more time at home, he decided to get a trolley and deliver sourdough during lockdown around the streets of York.

It was so lovely, it grew really quickly and really organically as well. More and more people kept messaging, so he swapped the trolley for a family bike. And when our youngest was well enough, he'd take both the boys out and cycle around the streets of York delivering sourdough, and that's where the name Cosgriff and Sons came from, a bit of a homage to that time of his life.

After that it got too big to be making it in our home kitchen so we opened up our first shop, and then that got two big. Now we are opposite Clifford's Tower, in York, in a beautiful location and a beautiful small bakery. Everything still kept the same, we still care so much about what we're making. There's a lot of heart and soul that goes into what is created, and it's a micro-bakery so only Paul and one other person make all the produce.

You mentioned the community of York. What makes your local community so special to you?

Because they're so supportive. They've always supported us right at the beginning of the journey, and we have so many regulars. And now we're in Clifford's Tower, we have so many more visitors of York as well that come and pop in and hear about us from people of York. And like with any independent business, we wouldn’t be able to survive if people around didn't support us and come through the door.

If you could recommend one thing to do in York, other than visiting C&S of course, what would it be? 

The best thing to do is to pick up an indie York guide, it is a map that shows all the independent businesses of York. I would get one of those and support local independent businesses.

We love that you change up your Hot Cup colours, do you have a current favourite?

I like all the colourful designs. We're quite a creative family so we love a bit of colour. 

And we’ve seen you just got our Two-Toned Hot Cups, how exciting! 

We love the way that decent always brings out some new looks. We've been using decent packaging since the very start of our journey. We were getting bags from you when we were delivering bread in lockdown, and then and now we've moved over to cups. So decent have been with us throughout the whole journey.

Big thanks to Janet for sharing their story, and to Cosgriff & Sons for being a decent partner from the very beginning! You can find them on Instagram here.