“I think Aigburth Road is different, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it.”
Matt Connolly and his friend, Will Johnson co-own Salad, Sandwiches and MAW on Aigburth Road(Image: Danny Gutmann/Liverpool Echo)
For years one stretch of Aigburth Road had been dominated by supermarket chains and the local Post Office, but recent years have seen a flurry of new businesses put their faith in the area and open their doors to the public.
While nearby Sefton Park and Lark Lane have seemingly received all of the plaudits in recent years, just a couple of hundred yards down the road lies Aigburth Road, where one strip of the street has seen a new lease of life.
One of those local businesses to take the leap and open their doors to the public is Salad, Sandwiches and MAW (Matt and Will) which first started trading in July this year.
They first decided to open the cafe after previously working together for years(Image: Danny Gutmann/Liverpool Echo)
Having initially met when they were working in Baa Bar on Fleet Street 17 years ago, they became close friends and continued to work together at a number of venues across the city, with Will Johnson, 37, in the kitchen and Matt Connolly, 39, at the front of house.
When the chance to buy a premises of their own came earlier this year, Matt said they didn’t think twice before taking the opportunity.
Matt, who had previously worked in the now closed, Onion, on Aigburth Road, explained why he and co-owner Will had always been attracted to the possibility of opening up their own cafe in the area.
He said: “We’ve always had a connection to Aigburth Road, even though me and Will have wanted to open a place of our own, we have always been drawn back to Aigburth Road because we both worked at a cafe called Onion, which closed a couple of years ago.
“We both had a connection to it and the cafe that was there was like a little hub in the community and everyone went there.”
The cafe is one of a growing number to open its doors on the street in recent years(Image: Danny Gutmann/Liverpool Echo)
While he had a sense of the community feel when he worked on the road many years ago, he continues to be blown away by just how close-knit the local area is.
He said: “I think Aigburth Road is different, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it. It’s more of a community, it’s a place where people still know their neighbours. Most places that I’ve lived, I don’t know the people who live two doors away from me, I’ve never met them.
“But it’s not a thing around here, everyone knows everyone it feels like.”
Just a couple of doors down the road lies another one of the street’s many new eateries, Maison Princess, a family-run business which is headed up by Chahinaz Lourdjane, 38.
Having grown up in Algeria and plying her trade as a pastry chef, Chahinaz made the move to Liverpool 12 years ago. She said: “When I came to Liverpool, I was looking all the time for a bakery, for something like that.”
Owner, Chahinaz Lourdjane, makes fresh pastries and cakes everyday(Image: Danny Gutmann/Liverpool Echo)
That is when the idea first came to her. She said: “I already had experience (working) in patisserie’s, so me and my husband said ‘why not try and open something new in Liverpool?’ “
In recent years the city has seen huge growth in the number of new bakeries opening their doors, but Chahinaz has said that she was keen to offer something different and bring a slice of her home country to south Liverpool: “It was a challenge for me, not a lot of people knew about Algeria, they know about Morocco and Tunisia, but Algeria is a little bit different. So here, I tried to show my Algerian sweets, my country. All of the people who come here, they love it. They say ‘oh, something different’.”
Owner Sarah recalled how several new eateries started opening shortly after she had(Image: Danny Gutmann/Liverpool Echo)
Another one of the road’s thriving new businesses is L17 Coffee ran by Sarah Griffith, 39, who first opened the doors of 172 Aigburth Road in late 2023. She recalled how the road saw a quick boom of new businesses popping up just months after she had opened.
She said: “Within six months of us opening, everyone else started popping up, which is absolutely fine, it’s more business for the road. There’s enough to go around for everyone, but that was how I originally saw it.”
Looking at what sets the street apart and gives a unique feel, she says that it’s her ability to attract customers from all over south Liverpool. She said: “You get people from Aigburth, you get people from the Dingle that come down, people from Ullet Road. People from all different directions come to us, in Aigburth Road.”
“I absolutely love it. I hate the ‘running a businesses side of it’, but I love being out there (in the cafe) and just interacting with the customers and getting to see the same faces everyday.”