Our Story.

September 15th 2024 sees our 9th birthday at Omni: we’ve come a long, long way since we first took over a sandwich shop with a concrete floor, a black ceiling and a panini maker. A time to reflect – and with the inception of our new website, we thought we’d share something of our memories and thoughts.

If we had to sum up the past nine years in one word it would be exhilarating - in a few more - exhausting, uplifting, scary, enriching, exciting, freeing – and all stops between!

From the get-go we’ve been made to feel welcome on our corner of leafy Monkseaton. Many, many of our neighbours are now essentially café residents- exactly what we'd hoped would happen! Our passion is food – but the context has always been about building a sense of community and human connectedness.

Our relationships matter to us above all else, we’re a family business - and we’ve spent a lot of time finding just the right people to complete our teams – those offering energy and passion in the kitchen and a really warm welcome front of house. Some of our team have other things going on, travelling or studying, other plans - we are happy to be a step on their way – and we’re delighted to hear all about it when they come back. Others have been with us from those first days when the concrete floor had to be dug out and the black ceiling refused to be painted over and opening by September seemed like a crazy dream.

But we did it.

We knew our food would speak for itself but we knew too that the success of our café would depend on finding the right folks to join us.

And over time we have.

Nine years on and working relationships have evolved into friendships - and we remain deeply grateful to our teams: to our kitchen porters who have learned to prep and now cook, to our floor managers who think nothing of cleaning the yard and to our Sous Chefs who constantly come up with the exciting dishes calling to you from our Specials board and who delight us with home-baked biscuits

So, that’s it. We can’t lock the doors (though we’d like to) – we just hope they’ll stay awhile. We’ll make proper introductions later – but first, something about how it all began…

It began, long ago but not-so-far away…

September 2003, in an art room in Whitley Bay High, Louis first spoke to Corrie, later at home describing her as, ‘quite messy and she loves food: I think you’d like her ‘. …and we did.

Six years on and Corrie and Louis were living very happily in Hanoi, teaching English and taking time to explore the backroads, sideroads and alleyways. Immersing themselves in the bustle, the pace – they embraced Hanoi and it embraced them back.

Communications home spoke of a multitude of new experiences but spoke mostly, in ecstatic terms, of the latest sampling of street food. The immediacy and freshness of the vegetables, tempered by the unguent depth of caramelised meat, all expertly wrapped in a leaf, or offered on a bamboo spike - each stall offering something unique…..

Exploring further afield they route-planned according to the reputation of amazing local dishes – and so, led by their taste-buds, they meandered their way through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and China. Messages home occasionally mentioned waterfalls, Black Hmong women, walking on Fansipan – but mostly they spoke of food.

Back at home in their alley, sharing their space with two rescued ducks, Corrie, already a trained and experienced chef, devoured the culinary knowledge shared by friends and neighbours. 4am trips to the local market were a feast for the eyes and Louis and Corrie indulged both their passions by holding candlelit parties beside Hoan Kiem lake, with dish after dish cooked up on tiny burners, friends hunkering down on rugs spread in the lakeside shadows, Lou d-j’ing and the nearest ‘facility’ a 5 minute scooter-ride away in a friends’ house.

They might still be there had it not been for a truck driver failing to check his mirror as he turned left, taking Lou and his scooter away under his vehicle. Damage was done and suddenly Lou and Corrie had to return home. The lives they had built and adored came to an abrupt halt – they had to make plans…

Corrie (third from left) & Lou (second from right) with family in Hanoi

Lou & Corrie in Vietnam 2009

A stint providing corporate catering for a high-profile company was lucrative and paid off the medical bills – but anyone who knew them knew their hearts weren’t in it. They yearned for the smoky clamour of their local Hanoi eating houses, where seats were child-size and randomly placed around the cramped spaces, the clamour as orders were shouted at steaming chefs – and the slight surprise when your order arrived out of the chaos, to be shared with friends and family amidst loud and ecstatic expressions of delight and calls to the kitchen for more.

Over the winter of 2014-15 they began to draw up a plan for bringing together the elements they’d adored in those small alley cafes: the oozing goodness of every dish, the informality balanced with a genuine welcome. The sense that the café is a focus for the local community and all human (and other!) life is here. Could this be recreated - or was it so inextricably embedded in the culture of the place it would be foolish to try? They decided to try.

And it’s worked.

So, here we are, Omni has opened and nine years on we are happily welcoming and feeding old friends and new.

We’ve had – and continue to have such enormous support from our families - (now one big family as Louis and Corrie married last year) the G-unit (Louis’ grandparents) who were our first customers and who eat here every week; Grandma who bakes our shortbread; Mums wielding paintbrushes, Dads deep cleaning and caring for plants; sister, Mistress of the counter, upholstery and genius mind behind our amazing coconut soup. The endless hours of washing up in return for food offered by sister’s partner, now our General Manager, in those crazy early days. Thank you all.

And this brings us back to our teams, who show us such astonishing commitment, curiosity, willingness, warmth, good humour and kindness to us and each other.

You should meet them!