EARLEY residents are bubbling with joy following the opening of a new local food business.
O Heavens Bubble Waffles, a delivery service, launched on Friday, September 18.
The business was founded by local resident Ella Sandels and her boyfriend, Adam Farwell. It offers a variety of sweet and savoury treats.
After feeling at a loose end during lockdown, the 20-year-old Portsmouth University student decided to embark on her business venture and is currently running O Heavens out of her own kitchen.
“I had been furloughed from work and with no university studying to do, I had a lot of time on my hands,” Ms Sandels explained.
“Me and my boyfriend have always wanted to have our own business and start doing food markets, so we decided to buy the equipment and just see where it goes.
“We thought long and hard about what sort of business we could set up, and while there are a lot of savoury food options in Earley, there aren’t many sweet options — and nowhere is doing bubble waffles.”
O Heavens offers sweet waffles with a variety of toppings including maltesers, strawberries and peanut butter, and customers are able to make their own unique creations.
Ms Sandels also has savoury treats on the menu, in the form of bubble waffle pizzas.
“We made up our own recipe for waffle pizzas,” Ms Sandels explains. “They’re very unique, I’ve never seen them before, and they’re really popular.”
The pizzas are cooked on a garlic and rosemary bubble waffle base, and customers can choose from a range of savoury toppings.
The menu has vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options, too.
“It’s all been really exciting so far,” Ms Sandels said. “It’s provided me and Adam with such a sense of achievement.
“We’ve had really good feedback too. We’ve only been open for over a week but we already have some loyal customers,” she added.
The pair were initially going to open up shop at the end of July, but launching the business took longer than expected.
“We first needed to register, and then organise our food and hygiene certificates, and then our insurance too.
“We then had to wait for our applications to be confirmed, so it took a bit longer than we expected to get everything sorted,” Ms Sandels explained.
But now that O Heavens Bubble Waffles is up and running, the team are already setting their sights on growing the business.
“I’m currently working from home because university is all online, but we plan to start doing food markets in Portsmouth during the week when I have to travel down for university,” Ms Sandels said.
“I then plan to come back to Reading on the weekends to continue with deliveries locally.”
O Heavens Bubble Waffles currently delivers to Earley, Whitley, Woodley and Winnersh, and to the greater Wokingham area for an additional charge.
To find out more, visit www.facebook.com/OHeavens1
