Our story

Hi, we are Anne and Adrian, a young at heart couple in their late 50s who think we’re too young to retire and not too old to be entrepreneurs. By the way! It’s good to meet you.

Where this story started

In 2006 Anne was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune disease. At first, she only experienced one of the symptoms of the disease and adapting life around it was pretty easy. Just 3+ years later, more of the symptoms started to appear and Anne became really unwell. After an appointment with a very skilled endocrinologist (who provided a medical intervention) and educating herself about the research into the disease, she found that gluten was a poison in her body with dairy and soy also triggering a flare up of the disease.

As a show of support for Anne, Adrian chose to go gluten free in 2010 – and that was when their home and car became 100% gluten free spaces with a zero tolerance. Dining out was challenging, the luxury of just deciding to go out or “popping in” to a café, pub or restaurant was gone and, now careful planning and research of where it would be safe to eat had to be considered. Goodbye spontaneity!

Thankfully Coeliac UK became a trusted source for recommendations by fellow gluten avoiders and without this resource life would have been a lot more difficult. If you are a coeliac, someone with allergies to gluten or intolerances (or you know someone who is) you’ll know it’s difficult finding safe places to dine out so, if you’ve never visited their website and you are looking for places to eat out in safety, then we highly recommend you do.

Bringing our vision to life

We began to dream of a place where people who couldn’t eat gluten could feel safe. A café perhaps, that was 100% gluten free and also was mostly dairy and soy free as well. Our conversations turned to; “what if, we open a place like this ourselves!”

Adrian was tasked with the name for our new venture, and he suggested “The Spontaneous Cuppa”. Anne honestly felt it was a bit too long-winded from a brand perspective but agreed to sleep on it before ruling it out. The following morning it was decided – Adrian was greeted with a kiss and told how clever he was, because of course “people who are allergic or intolerant to gluten can never be spontaneous, we have to search and research before eating out!” – and that is how our wonderful name came to be.

In 2022 we secured a location in the coastal town of Hunstanton, Norfolk. We embarked upon a 7-month journey to renovate the premises, using all local companies and trades people – because supporting local businesses is something that’s very important to us.

In March 2023 we opened the doors to our new “eatery”, a completely refurbished space with brand new equipment. Our vision had come to life – we had created a place for Coeliacs, people living with Hashimoto’s and other intolerances to gluten to safely dine out, and not be charged extra to do so either. For us there was, and always will be, one key priority at the heart of what we have created, to be “Safe”, “healthy”, and “sustainable”.

Visiting The Spontaneous Cuppa

Our 1920s inspired high street location in Hunstanton can comfortably seat up to 24 people, so if you are in the area and you need to take a break from your shopping, catch up with friends over great coffee and cake, or are looking for a lunch stop – we hope you will pop in.

Thank you for reading our story.

Adrian and Anne JM Norman