We Never Thought We'd Have George Clooney Drop In For Lunch

Chris Cope chats to Josh Littlejohn, co-founder of the Social Bite project.

WHEN Josh Little john launched a sandwich and coffee shop in Edinburgh in 2012, little did he know that just a few years later Hollywood A-lister George Clooney would pop in for lunch.

However, not only did the Oscar winner stop by, but just months later, fellow acting icon Leonardo DiCaprio got involved, too.

While Josh’s Social Bite café project received global attention from the two actors’ visits to Edinburgh, it’s the human impact the business has had that has been the most rewarding aspect for him.

Social Bite, which currently operates six cafés across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, is a social enterprise which gives its profits to charity.

In an attempt to help tackle the issue of inequality in Scotland, it also ensures that one quarter of its workforce have been homeless, and customers can also pay in advance for coffee and food which a homeless person can claim later.

But it doesn’t stop there. The Social Bite Academy aims to support 10 homeless people off the streets and into a job and a tenancy, while innovative plans to create a purpose built “village” in Edinburgh, which would house rough sleepers to help them with the transition back into society are well under way.

Josh, who only recently turned thirty, has also been awarded an MBE for services to social enterprise and entrepreneurship in Scotland.

The idea was the brainchild of the entrepreneur and his then girlfriend Alice after he became disillusioned with buying lunch from global chains.

“We decided we wanted to try to set up a social enterprise business,” Josh says.

“I was running an events company and we had an office in George Street in Edinburgh. I used to go into the well-known coffee and sandwich shops, and we thought maybe if we could set up a shop then customers might come to us.