Popular Sheffield food hall Cutlery Works reflects on past eight years as they celebrate milestone
Cutlery Works shares their journey to success as they celebrate their anniversary.
The original food hall of Sheffield is celebrating a major milestone over the weekend, as it enters its eighth year of serving delicious food to people across the city.
Cutlery Works’ anniversary, on Saturday, November 7, and to honour this milestone, they’ve looked back over the years that have passed and shared what it means to them to be just as popular as they were when they first opened.
Katie Canham, 22, PR executive at Blend Family - the organisation that owns Cutlery Works, said: “I think it’s crazy to have been opened for eight years, and I think it means more because it’s the first one and definitely the first in Sheffield.
“I feel like it’s been the start of everything.”
Blend Family is the company that curated not only this venue, but many more food halls across the country.
They first opened Cutlery Works in 2018, and it has since been a pioneer for dining in a modern way that gives food lovers a range of choice in dishes.
Katie said: “Our founders, Matt and Nina, they originally had a gastro pub on the other side of Kelham called The Milestone.
“But it was really through their regular trips they had abroad in Asia where they would go to these different street food markets and they discovered that it was people cooking food that they genuinely loved and it was generational food.
“They saw they were cooking for their communities and families and it wasn’t anything too pressured.”
The founders, Matt and Nina, were inspired by these global traditions and took a liking to the relaxed dining environment where “there were just no rules to it”, which ultimately led to the opening of Cutlery Works - and since then their journey hasn’t stopped.
Despite being so successful, Katie shared how this hasn’t come so easily all the time, especially when the pandemic hit and restrictions were put in place that impacted their ability to be the vibrant community space they usually are.
But even after this, people of Sheffield were “keen to come back” and enjoy Cutlery Works once again.
“Through the Covid pandemic, I think that was a big change and how people came back from when we could mingle again and lockdown restrictions ended. People were so keen to come back and that was really nice,” she said.
“It was nice to know we had withheld such a hard time and that people just really enjoyed being in our space.”
Whilst food is key to Cutlery Works and what inspired it into existence, Katie highlighted how today, it has transformed into “so much more”, and that perhaps their reason for success is being a venue that focuses on having community spaces for people to relax and enjoy.
They host fun and inclusive events for all ages, including toddler events for new parents, Kids’ crafts, book swaps, society-based things for university students and a range of other events for adults.
So it’s clear that there is always something exciting for everybody.
Katie said: “Food is the start and it’s to bring people to connect and communicate over the universal language of food, but I think it’s also the events as well that we have.
“We celebrate the big things like Christmas, Chinese New Year and we bring in all these different types of events to make everybody feel seen and to make everybody feel connected.”
Sheffield is home to many diverse communities, which is why connection is something Cutlery Works stands for in everything they do, bringing people together through food.
Something they’re currently doing more of is community based campaigns, for example, ‘Stories of Sheffield’, where they are showcasing local artists’ work across the venue to highlight some of the incredible talent the city has to offer.
“We’re leaning into our independent artists of Kelham Island to showcase their art pieces quarterly. So I think just to get inclusive as we can and fully connect with the community,” Katie said.
To celebrate this milestone, the venue has put on a range of events during the week, and will have an evening of dancing and great music for people to enjoy on Saturday with “Seven by 7” - an event group where anyone can try out DJing for the night.
Their popular cocktail, the cherry bomb, has also returned for a limited time, which involves a mix of gin, maraschino liqueur, cherry syrup, fresh lemon juice and soda.
Looking ahead, Katie shared her excitement over the new housing estate in development across the road from Cutlery Works, how it could “attract” potential customers to join in on their foodie fun.
She said: “The new housing estate opposite would be great to attract more people, as many people as we can get into the doors.”
Although it’s the eighth anniversary, it is actually Katie’s second year working for Blend Family.
She shared how Cutlery Works was the first food hall she worked at whilst on university placement, and that coming back “feels like a full circle”.
“Just to see how it has evolved, and how I have evolved with it” is something she feels fondly about.
So as food halls continue to rise in popularity, it’s important to remember Cutlery Works was one of the first - they introduced casual dining in a modern and innovative way that welcomes all people with all kind of tastes.