decent packaging

Joe&Jam is a coffee and doughnuts shop located in the heart of Gidea Park, Romford.

Opening in the middle of lockdown by a couple of locals (husband and wife team Stacey & Rachel Morris) who always wanted a place to have great coffee in their neighbourhood where their four-legged friends would be welcomed too.

With their great coffee and delicious doughnuts, this is a place that is a must-visit for you and your dog!

We were lucky enough to chat with Stacey and Rachel to chat all things Joe & Jam, customers, new doughnut flavours and more...

A coffee and a doughnut is the perfect combination! What's your current favourite flavour?

We get asked this so much. We have a great selection available, but if we had to choose a favourite it would be a classic jam filled doughnut. It’s just one of those flavours that’s always a winner. It’s also why we’re called Joe & Jam. A cup of Joe (slang for coffee) and a classic jam doughnut. You can’t beat that combo. 

You've been with decent packaging since we started in the UK! We're proud to have such loyal customers like yourself. What made you decide to use our compostable packaging?

We didn’t want to open without knowing we were making steps wherever possible to be as eco as we could be. And that’s how we found Decent Packaging, we loved the fact both the cups and lids were made from plants and were compostable. 

Our coffee grounds get made into bio fuel and we separate all our waste and have it picked up by a specialist recycling firm. It was just really important for us to work with companies who care about the environment and are looking for solutions to waste problems.

Speaking of customers, what is your favourite part about your customers?

We always wanted our little shop to be a bustling addition to our community but we have been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of amazing people who visit us regularly. Opening a new business during lockdown has been really humbling. We’ve had a real glimpse of how a pandemic has affected people’s lives. From people who’s lost their jobs and pivoted to start new businesses, to those who’ve enjoyed a daily chat and a coffee because they live on their own. The news was full of doom and gloom but we were lucky enough to see the amazing resilience of people through such a tough time. We’ve made lots of new friends.

Who is one famous person you would love to sit and have a coffee with and why?

We chatted about this for ages with some members of staff and customers. We couldn’t pin it down to one person so figured out if Jeff Goldblum, Bob Mortimer and Chevy Chase pulled up outside in a cab looking for coffee and doughnuts, we’d welcome them with open arms.

Can we talk about how you have doughnuts for dogs too! That is so cute. How did you come up with this idea?

We love dogs and wanted the shop to be dog friendly. When we opened, a local company, Bow Wow Pantry, approached us about selling her healthy dog treat biscuits in the shop. We did and got chatting and the idea of creating a doggy Doughnut exclusively for our shop came up. Our four-legged customers love them! We even have dogs that stop in their tracks outside our shop as they’re being walked because they know we have them. They’re very popular. 

Lastly, is there anything you would like to promote to our readers.

We've recently celebrated our 1 year anniversary and we’ve started to introduce some new flavours to the counter as well as giving our logo a friendly little re-launch in honour of the occasion. It’s brilliant to be able to have people back in the shop again. It's meant we could get people together more with events such as our Book Club and a Ring Carving workshop hosted by jeweller Babes & Bad Examples, where people can carve their own unique ring and get it made. We’re also supporting local by continuing our sponsorship of our local Ice Hockey team The Raiders so expect to see us wearing our hockey shirts in the shop. But mostly, we’re just looking forward to hanging out with good people over good coffee and doughnuts in our fantastic neighbourhood. Come down and hang out.