Award-winning Liverpool coffee shop is expanding in time for summer takeaways

An award-winning south Liverpool independent coffee shop, Bean There, is expanding to offer takeaways in time for summer – including grilled cheese on their ‘Best in Britain’ sourdough!

Bean There Coffee Shop on the corner of Smithdown Road and Penny Lane has become a big local favourite since it was opened in 2017 by Candice and Andrew Mulligan.

They added a second site, with an in-house bakery, on Rose Lane four years ago and now they’re about to make it three.

The Side Door by Bean There will launch later this month serving takeaway sandwiches on fresh-out-the- oven bread, fast breakfast options like overnight oats, granola pots and pastries, salads, bakes and speciality coffee.

It will initially open 7.30am to 3pm midweek, 8am to 3pm Saturday and 8am to 12midday on Sundays. Candice says they saw an opportunity to offer takeout-only for picnics and work lunches, and showcase what’s being made each day at the Rose Lane bakery.

She explains:

“The owner of Buongiorno Italian deli who’s a friend of ours decided to close so we messaged the landlords to see if we could try something there.

“In Penny Lane we have the kitchen where we do all our breakfast and lunch offerings, and in Rose Lane we do cakes and some sandwiches, so we thought this was a chance to do something different.

“We’ve always had some customers come in and get takeaways from us, but a lot of people locally who we’ve spoken to say they wouldn’t necessarily think to come to us for a takeaway sandwich but they would go to a sandwich shop if we had one.

“If you work or live locally and you want an amazing sandwich for lunch, we’re going to have a pre-order system so you can order in advance or just pop in, and because we’re close to three parks – Greenbank, Sefton and Calderstones – we want people to be able to come and just build the most awesome picnic they can take to the park.

“We’ll be making fresh focaccia sandwiches with lots of different fillings that we can change seasonally, and in April we won a gold medal for our white sourdough, which was a really nice accolade to have, so we’re going to be using that for grilled cheese.

“There’ll also be a couple of salads each day which will change regularly, and hot specials on sandwiches as well.”

Candice and her husband Andrew, who have four young children, plan to use the new site to increase the catering side of their Bean There business too.

She added:

“The kitchen and coffee in Penny Lane are at capacity a lot of the time, especially on busy Saturdays, so having The Side Door will ease a bit of pressure and it means we can be quicker and have a dedicated space for takeaways.”

“We already do some catering but with this extra area there’ll be more space to prep everything so we’re also going to be fully launching our catering options for events.”