Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan talk to the team behind Acropolis, as they celebrate ten years of turning a slightly wonky Quayside market stall into one of the North East’s biggest street food success stories.
It all started with a cigarette, a coffee and the words: “We could do that.” A borrowed gazebo, a second-hand kebab machine, plastic tables, a badly pixelated Acropolis sign and a cash pouch later - they sold out on day one.
The lads talk about quitting their jobs to give the business a year, convincing family to swap Greece for Newcastle, building a team of around 60 people and why success brings a very different kind of pressure.
There’s plenty of food chat too: the rise of gyros in the North East, the great chilli sauce debate, smashed lamb kofta, family recipes, and the golden rule that they’ll never serve anything they wouldn’t feed their own family.
And, because this is Local Heroes, we also somehow get into ox tongue, kokoretsi, “King of Meats” merch, vegan Greeks, an international Greek-Turkish peacekeeping mission on Newcastle Quayside and Dan’s slightly troubling coffee bean confession.
Plus, for those who know their spanakopita from their cheese pasties, we ask the question that really matters: what’s your Grigoris order? The Greek bakery chain that proves wherever you are in the world, sometimes all you really want is a pastry, a coffee and absolutely no judgement about either.
A funny, warm and occasionally unhinged conversation about food, friendship, Greece, Newcastle and what it really takes to turn a weekend side hustle into a ten-year business.
This is the story of Acropolis.
 
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/wearelocalheroes/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearelocalheroes?_t=ZG-8tKWkdyntYm&_r=1
Website - https://www.wearelocalheroes.com/
 

In this episode of the Local Heroes Podcast, we sit down with Nic Greenan, custodian of one of the North East’s most loved cultural venues to talk cinema, community, leadership and what it means to be the leading a place approaching 90 years old.
We talk about opening cultural spaces up to everyone, bringing younger audiences through the doors, the magic of the big screen and ambitious plans for the building’s next chapter. But this is Local Heroes, so naturally we also get distracted.
There’s Jaws, Goodfellas, Metallica, the Bee Gees, VHS tapes, 12-inch singles and wired headphones - before reminiscing about previous Greggs orders, cheese and onion pasties hot enough to remove the roof of your mouth, pasty-and-crisp sandwiches and the questionable genius of putting cheese bites inside a steak bake.
Culture. Community. Custodianship. Carbs.
This is Local Heroes.

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan are joined by farmer and trained shepherdess Helen Stewart for a conversation about farming, food, family heritage and what it really takes to get something from farm to fork.
Helen’s family have been farming on Lizard Lane since 1965, on land that once housed hundreds of soldiers during the Second World War. From her grandfather delivering milk around South Shields by horse and cart to Helen now running livestock, selling eggs and building the next chapter of the farm, it’s a story rooted deeply in place.
We talk about growing up around agriculture, training as a shepherdess, taking on her own flock and the reality of running a farm where there are no days off and you only get paid when you actually produce something.
Helen takes us inside the world most of us never see — lambing, vaccinating, fly strike, shearing, fluctuating livestock prices, abattoirs, local butchers and why keeping a short, traceable food chain matters.
There’s also the story of Alan, the farm’s much-loved and completely uneconomical sheep, pigs called Sharon and Tracy, 280 eggs a day, why fresh eggs really are different and Helen’s passion for helping people understand where their food actually comes from.
And unsurprisingly, eggs take over a large portion of the conversation.
There are boiled egg WhatsApp groups, egg decorating competitions, poaching techniques, double yolkers, egg facts, 84-egg stockpiles and some surprisingly detailed debate about exactly how many fried eggs is too many.
Add in pig facts, black pudding, sausages, farmyard mishaps, Greggs orders and plans to bring sheep into South Shields Market, and it’s Local Heroes at its most gloriously unpredictable.
Funny, fascinating and full of things you probably never knew about the food on your plate — a conversation about farming, heritage, animal welfare, local food and keeping generations of knowledge alive.

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan are joined by Sunderland-born designer, photographer and entrepreneur Ian Wright for a conversation about creativity, confidence and what can happen when you’re prepared to back yourself.
From spending his early childhood in South Africa and returning to Sunderland in the 1970s, to getting bullied at school and being told by a careers adviser to think about getting “a real job”, Ian’s route into the creative world was anything but obvious.
It all changed with a drawing of Bruce Lee.
That sketch helped land him his first job in print at 16, beginning a career that would take him from Letraset and darkrooms to photographing Sunderland AFC at Roker Park, shooting Kevin Keegan’s first Newcastle goal, building his own design agency Rufus and helping businesses completely rethink how they present themselves.
Ian shares the thinking behind redesigning Hayes Travel’s identity and stores, why understanding people matters as much as design itself, and the philosophy that has shaped almost everything he’s done: if somebody else can do it, why can’t you?
That mindset eventually led Ian and his wife Vicky to take on one of their biggest challenges yet — buying a derelict Victorian pumping station during COVID with nowhere near enough money to do it, and transforming it into The Pump House, a spectacular wedding venue built around obsessive attention to detail.
We get into risk, resilience, creative problem-solving, retail psychology, customer experience, Sunderland heritage and why sometimes the smallest moments can completely change the direction of your life.
And naturally, there’s plenty of Local Heroes territory too — Bruce Lee, Roker Park, Black Forest gateau, profiterole mountains, mushy pea fritters, sticky beef, sticky toffee pudding and a very respectable Greggs double order.
A fascinating conversation about design, graft, instinct and the importance of giving things a go — because sometimes one drawing, one conversation or one decision really can change everything.

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan welcome Richard and Dominic Colman back to the studio to talk about an extraordinary year for one of South Shields’ best-known hospitality families.
A century after the Colman family first entered the food business, the brothers reflect on reaching their 100-year milestone, creating an exhibition at South Shields Museum, opening new venues and continuing a family story built around food, hard work and the town they call home.
We hear about their plans to transform a much-loved Whitburn café, preserving its history while creating the next chapter with great breakfasts, Sunday lunches, cakes and elevated versions of the British classics people grew up with.
The conversation explores what makes a brilliant full English, why simple food is often the hardest to get right, the importance of local produce and how Richard and Dominic develop new ideas — usually around a table, late at night and with plenty of food involved.
They also share plans for the new Sandhaven Coastal Village, bringing beach huts, independent businesses, food, retail and community activity together on the South Shields seafront — close to the site where their family’s hospitality story began. And, as always, things head wildly off course.
There are hypothetical drinks flowing from fingers, condiment hands, curry sauce secrets, 84 eggs, chicken-wing world records, Black Forest gateau, nostalgic sweet shops, tinned mixed grills, sausage menus designed by a seven-year-old and a very serious debate about whether hash browns belong on a full English.
Funny, hungry and full of ideas — a conversation about family, food, legacy, creativity and building the next 100 years of the Colman story.

This week, Chris and Dan are joined by South Shields-born producer, filmmaker and content creator John Nejjy for a conversation about creativity, curiosity and using social media to tell better stories about the North East.
From joining the Merchant Navy at 17 and travelling the world, to training as a stonemason, working in bars and eventually building a successful career in the video games industry, John’s journey has never followed a straight line.
He talks about working his way from customer service and game testing into design and production, while continuing to explore his own creativity through filmmaking and online content focused on local people, artists, history, food and place.
We get into why authentic storytelling matters, the unpredictability of social media, the pressure to keep feeding the algorithm and John’s mission to “heal the algorithm” by creating positive, human content in a digital world often driven by outrage, division and exploitation.
John also shares why he keeps trying new skills, the importance of staying curious and his determination not to reach the end of his life wishing he had given something a go.
And, as always, the conversation heads in several unexpected directions.
There are fears of flying, red jackets, Flash Gordon, South Shields beaches, Greggs orders, chocolate pasties, shrinking Feasts, Angel Delight, 84 eggs and a WhatsApp group dedicated entirely to boiled egg content.
Funny, thoughtful and completely unpredictable — a conversation about creativity, identity, local pride and finding your own way to make something positive.

This week on the Local Heroes podcast, Chris and Dan met Luke Smith - a distiller who survived an explosion that blew his hat off, built his first still at fifteen, and once sent Chris home from a rum-making night so happy he nearly ate a slug outside a Newcastle church.
Luke is head distiller and co-founder of a Newcastle distillery, ten minutes from Central Station, where he makes white and dark rum from molasses, a bourbon-style whiskey, and gin. He got there via a home brew kit at fourteen, a garden centre where he sold 15,000 bottles of ginger wine a year, and a chance conversation at Durham Farmers' Market that landed him a job at Sonnet 43.
From there: head distiller at Poetic Licence, one of the North East's earliest gin distilleries, then Mason's Yorkshire Gin - where a pinhole in a Portuguese copper still ignited on a gas burner and took the whole building down in ten seconds.
Nobody was hurt and they never missed an order. Chris and Dan dig deep to try and understand the science and the art of it - why ambient room temperature changes your ABV, why Scottish distillers still ding a rock against the still to listen for bubbles, and how a batch that tasted inexplicably salty for three weeks turned into one of the best things Luke's ever made.
There's the history too: Gin Lane as government propaganda, quinine and the accidental birth of the G&T, and why gin boomed here while tequila never could.
Chris tastes the spiced rum he made at Luke's rum academy and gets a six and a half out of ten, there's two new product ideas born live on the mic, and the Greggs order is settled.
And remember, a sausage roll is always the thing you eat before the other thing.

Jo Milne and Steve White join us for a conversation about empathy, connection and what it means to truly understand the world from someone else’s perspective. Jo lives with Usher syndrome, a condition that causes both hearing and sight loss.
After being profoundly deaf from birth, her experience of hearing for the first time through cochlear implants was captured in a video that went viral around the world. But behind that moment is a much bigger story. Together with Steve, Jo talks about their partnership, the often-unseen role of caring, navigating a world that isn’t always accessible, and why awareness begins with being willing to ask questions.
From the sounds we take for granted to the importance of simply “zooming out”, this is a warm, funny and thought-provoking conversation about disability, difference, human connection and the empathy we could all do with a little more of.

Paul Mort is known for his energy, honesty and no-nonsense approach to business and life, but behind the success is a story very few people know.
In this episode, Paul opens up about building a business from nothing, surviving depression and suicidal thoughts, rebuilding his life, and the mindset shifts that changed everything.
He talks about learning to sell, embracing discomfort, becoming alcohol-free, and why personal responsibility has been the biggest catalyst for change.
Along the way, we also dive into football, South Shields, Greggs orders, public speaking, social media, and why humour has always been one of his greatest strengths. It’s raw, hilarious, emotional and packed with practical wisdom.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, struggling with your mental health, or simply looking for a reminder that it’s never too late to rebuild your life, this is a conversation you won’t forget.

What happens when you lose everything, and have to rebuild your life from the ground up?
In one of our most powerful conversations yet, Claire Liddle shares her extraordinary journey from childhood trauma and alcohol addiction to prison, recovery, and building a thriving bakery business that’s changing lives.
Claire speaks with remarkable honesty about growing up with abuse, the spiral into addiction, serving 22 months in prison, and why prison ultimately became the turning point that saved her life.
She reflects on forgiveness, accountability, football as therapy, and discovering a passion for baking that gave her a new purpose. Today, Claire is the founder of Cakeaholics, creating award-winning cakes while proving that our past doesn’t have to define our future. This is a story about redemption, resilience, second chances, and finding hope when everything seems lost.
It’s raw, funny, emotional, and ultimately incredibly inspiring.