Hucknall café hoping to cook up more business success in the town

Millie-Jo Searcy, aged 20, has opened MJ’s Café on Annesley Road and is already starting to build a loyal customer base.

Millie-Jo, from Nuthall, owns the café in partnership with her mum and runs business day to day together with Rachel Liffen, a former manager at Costa in the town.

The cafe is open Mondays-Fridays, from 8am-2pm, and Saturdays, from 8am-1pm, and serves breakfasts, barista coffee, tea, cold drinks, rolls, paninis and cakes and will be adding homemade cakes to the menu.

Everything is cooked fresh on site and the café uses local suppliers.

It is also on the site previously occupied by by the former Creations café in the town that was a favourite venue for many for several years.

Millie-Jo said: “I’ve been working in hospitality all my life and just thought I wanted to do my own thing and open up for myself and set myself up for the future.

“I’d been looking around for a place to set-up for while and Hucknall seemed a nice and friendly town, so I decided to come here.”

Millie-Jo is entering a busy market for cafés and eateries in Hucknall, but she believes there is room in the town for one more.

She said: “This used to be a café before I took it over and it was very popular for many years, so I know people like there being a café at this location, so I thought I’d take it over and carry on with a café at this site."

Rachel said: “The previous café was also very popular for doing takeaways for people in residential homes and places like that, so there’s a big market there for that and that’s something we’ll be looking to expand into and putting a stamp on it for ourselves."

The new café has been open for about seven weeks now Millie-Jo says she has seen it growing in popularity week on week.

She said: “It was steady at the start, but it’s picking up now and the regulars who used to come here have now seen the café is open again and are coming back, which is great.”