The team have gone from strength-to-strength since first opening nearly two decade ago
Stanhope Coffe opens with Silvia Glazik(Manager)centre,Colin Harris-Day & Maisie Blake(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
A man who took only £63 on the first day of opening his business has now launched his third site. Gareth Dyer, from St Helens, alongside landlord-turned-friend Paul Vernon, is best known for being the brains behind two of the city’s most-loved coffee shops.
The pair welcomed the first customers through the doors of Lord Street’s The Rococo Coffee House in 2008. Since then, the picturesque venue, located on the top two floors of the corner of Dorans Lane, has made great strides in establishing its loyal customer base.
The coffee house’s success has enabled the two friends to expand with Cafe Lucaya, a sister store on Water Street from 2018, and, more recently, Stanhope Coffee, on the street of the same name in the Baltic Triangle. Gareth previously explained how the team believed they weren’t going to be able “to survive”, especially after their initial take-home of £63.
Fast-forward to today, and the two have continued to defy odds as Gareth spoke to the ECHO from the brand-new location. The 42-year-old said: “We own a warehouse in the Baltic. We roast our beans here so we can supply our coffee shops. We had this space in the warehouse and so thought, ‘why not?’.
“We got the planning permission and thought it would be a great idea to do it. We have the USP of letting people come in and see their own coffee being roasted; it’s something that not many places can offer. It is quite unique.”
Gareth said Stanhope Coffee had been in the pipeline for 18 months before it officially opened on Friday, July 11. The former University of Central Lancashire student said he couldn’t imagine the venue’s reaction given its recent use as the basis of several popular TikToks.
The business graduate said: “We never realised how viral it would go. We usually use Instagram and Facebook, but it just took one video to our amazement. It was great for us.
“It’s really fulfilling to see the reaction. Hospitality is really tough, particularly in the environment right now. So to have so much local support in an instant made it all worthwhile.”
Gareth Dyer, from St Helens, alongside landlord-turned-friend Paul Vernon, is best known for being the brains behind two of the city’s most-loved coffee shops(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
At Stanhope Coffee, guests will find a “slightly smaller” menu than the other sister sites. However, it is made up of “the best and most popular” items from the two older venues, with a few new additions. You can choose from a range of smoothies, breakfast meals, sandwiches, cakes, and of course, specialty coffee.
Gareth said: “We’ve always said we wanted to save Liverpool from corporate coffee, and we still want to do that. We base Stanhope Coffee on great service, good food, and a nice atmosphere, and when you get all those three things right, then you’re already winning and hopefully have success.”
The business owner did say it hasn’t been all plain-smoothing with the new location, however. Gareth explained how, against the National Insurance increases and “ever-rising” food costs, it does put, not just him and Paul, but all hospitality businesses in a difficult situation.
He said: “The pandemic and Covid were hard, but nothing compared to now. The cost pressures the hospitality industry is facing at the moment are really high. We already had the warehouse, an empty space as such. We were already roasting there, but we were already in the process of creating the coffee house before these extra cost pressures came about.
“It was either we stopped and stopped employing people or we give it a go because we’ve already got it started. Ultimately, we decided to continue with things because we already had invested; otherwise, it would have been a pure waste.”