Couple open new vegan pizzeria Pie Hole in Southend

Despite having no previous experience, the couple created their business during lockdown out of “optimism, too much time on our hands and a deep love of pizza”.

Dan, 35, from Westcliff, explained: “We’ve been vegan for two years and we have been left disappointed countless times when it comes to filling that hole only great pizza can fill.

“That changed in late 2019 when we travelled to New York and tasted what those guys have to offer. We were blown away! We joked about opening our very own pizzeria, but we never thought one year later we would.

“We had a little time to spare in 2020 and remembering the Big Apple we felt inspired to try and recreate what we’d experienced. We purchased a stand mixer, did our research, and failed... we failed so many times! I’d like to say it sucked but it didn’t... the failure tasted great, just not as great as we’d remembered.

“As the pizzas improved we started to share them with friends and family. The feedback was good, our friends loved them.”

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While Laura, 30, was looking for a change in her work situation, which had been working for a pathology company, Dan had been a co-founder of another business which was dependent on the event sector.

“We’d stayed pretty positive throughout the year despite slowly watching our livelihood disappear” Dan added. “Eternally optimistic and looking for the silver lining, we started to talk about launching a pizza van, something that would build momentum and we could grow into a shop. We came to realise that the van idea wasn’t going to work and we started to look at small shops.

“We weren’t looking long when we found the perfect place.”

The pizzeria – named Pie Hole – opened in December, opposite Southend Central train station in Clifftown Road.

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“There were plenty of challenges, but our biggest was having to lockdown a week and a half after opening” said Dan. “We’d focused heavily on the restaurant as we wanted to share the space we created. The measures coming into effect so soon after launch meant we didn’t have the customer base to thrive through the winter lockdown, doing deliveries only. It was a very testing time, but with some loyal customers, some diversifying and a positive attitude we got through it.

“Positive feedback helped give us the energy to continue. We’re positive about Pie Hole and we’re moving in the right direction now.”