A County Durham tearoom has won two business awards just one year after it first opened.
The Quarry Tea House in Hunwick, County Durham brought home two gongs at the North East Business Awards on Sunday (July 3) just days after celebrating its first birthday.
The business won the Best Tearoom in Tyne and Wear and Best Business in County Durham at the English Business Awards, at an awards ceremony at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Newcastle.
Julie Bell, owner of The Quarry Tea House which opened after converting from a pub during the pandemic, told The Northern Echo she couldn’t believe it when the business was announced as a winner.
She said: “We received a letter in the post to say we had been nominated as best café and asking if we wanted to go into the competition. We had to advertise to get votes online since around March this year.
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“We were initially shocked and the to be nominated and then to be invited to go to the final for the awards ceremony was amazing.
“It was unbelievable. At first when they announced the first one it was a big wow and then to win the extra award was overwhelming to say the least.
“I’d just like to say an absolutely huge thank you to everybody for voting to us and continuing to support us, and to all of the staff.”
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The Quarry only opened as a tea room a year ago, having previously been a pub before it was forced to close during the pandemic.
Julie, 48, added: “At the start of covid when we had to close we rang the council the next day to ask if we could go to takeaway and we survived doing that for 18 months before becoming a tea room.”
The business has now been entered into the national round of England’s Business Awards and the Quarry Tea Room will get to go to Birmingham for the finals in November.
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