Meet the owner behind 'fresh and authentic' Stakks Pancake House

Anna Copper, 51, is the owner of Stakks Pancake House in Marlands Shopping Centre in Southampton and spoke out during Independents Week.

She opened the eatery in August 2015 – and her kitchen’s ingredients are largely fresh, with just four frozen products – including ice and ice cream.

Anna said: “We wanted to make freshly cooked dishes from scratch like your mum and nana would make it. We make everything ourselves, don’t buy any sauces, make ourselves.

“We only have four frozen products in our stock. Two of those products are ice and ice cream, no preservatives or colourant.”

Chocoholic Stakk

She admits that while this attracts a lot of customers to the restaurant, it doesn’t always work as intended.

“With our strawberry mojito, because you’re mixing the strawberry with mint, the colour comes out as a slightly dirty strawberry colour, but we don’t enhance the colour, because that’s what it is, it’s fresh and authentic.”

Anna, who moved to the UK 30 years ago from Armenia, married an Englishman and has two daughters.

She decided to open a pancake house as Armenian cuisine is based around pancakes – and Anna offers both sweet and savoury treats.

She said her Armenian heritage has fuelled her ethos at work.

She said: "Where I come from, at the time, we didn’t have readymade meals or fast-food restaurants, everything was made freshly.

Go! Southampton

“When I first came to the UK, there was a shock in the attitude towards food was different to what she was used to in Armenia.

"For me, it’s a social event, and food is taken very seriously, but back then, it felt as if in the UK food was seen simply as a fuel so you could survive rather than a social event and actually enjoy the food."

And Anna confesses there’s nothing better than seeing her customer’s reactions as she brings over their pancakes.

“For me, there’s nothing better than to see the customer's face when we put the plate on the table and they say ‘wow’ and afterwards they go they say, ‘that was delicious’, I could work 12 hours a day as long as I hear that phrase.”

Stakks can be found on the upper level of Marlands Shopping Centre, open Monday to Saturday 8.30am to 5.30pm, and from 10am to 5pm on Sunday.

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