New Sheffield coffee shop run by Michelin trained chef causes a stir - selling out in first weekend

Michelin trained chef Alice Cassinelli was forced to close her cafe Cassinelli's on Bank Street in Sheffield city centre when Coronavirus hit the nation last year.

Now, she is back running her new venture on Ecclesall Road – and the first weekend trading has been ‘manic’.

Dysh, located in a former printing shop on 778-780 Ecclesall Road, is open 9am to 5pm seven days a week and offers an all-day breakfast, as well as coffee and sweet treats.

Owner Alice said: “We have just sold out every day, of everything. And we have been manically trying to make more food.

"Everything has been popular. The coffee is great, it comes from (Sheffield roaster ) Cafeology, we are really good friends with them, so that has just flown.

"The cakes we have sold out of pretty much every day.”

It has been so popular since in first opened last Friday, March 5, that Alice has been forced to bring in new recruits already.

"We have had to panic hire two members of staff last night, to help us cover the rush,” she said.

Alice has ‘always’ worked in the hospitality industry, and was trained at a two-Michelin Star restaurant in the Lake District, before honing her craft at the award-winning Old Vicarage restaurant in Sheffield.

This is only her second business after Cassinelli’s became no longer viable due to the pandemic.

However, this new café, she says, is a lot more ‘her’.

Alice, who grew up in Greenhill, said: "We had a café down on Bank Street before Coronavirus hit in town and, because it was in the business sector of town, we just thought our custom is going to go, and this place was just available and it was so much more ‘me’, so I just wanted to do it – and we thought we would risk it. And I can’t complain really.”

For now, the brunches, cakes and drinks are takeout only – but Alice has big plans for Dysh in the coming months as lockdown eases.

She said: "We are going to try and get some outside space sorted, we have a garage out the back we want to convert into an outside terrace and take the roof off – and then after that we can seat inside up to about 30 people, depending on social distancing.

"It was trying to find a building and I looked everywhere, I must have viewed about 20 buildings before I found this place.

"I could see the vision, and moved in and ripped it all out and made it our own.”