Liverpool favourite Fika to open pop-up waterfront coffee shop again this summer

Fika is reopening its hidden gem waterfront coffee shop for summer, serving not just gorgeous homemade cakes but some of the best views in the city.

With the original award-winning one on Woolton Road busy all year round, owner Anthony Grice had thought he’d have to close the seasonal second branch at Liverpool Watersports Centre permanently.

When he locked it up in the first week of October last year, he didn’t expect to be able to reopen.

But now he’s getting ready for an Easter weekend return that will see the shop making the most of its beautiful waterside location all through the warmer months.

Anthony explains:

“Because I don’t have any business partners, it does cause me a lot of stress having the two shops even though I’ve got a really good team who work with me.

“This is our fifth year down by the Marina, but when we closed at the end of the season last year and I didn’t think we’d be back, I thought that was it.

“I was planning on closing Woolton Road and the waterfront and having a super-Fika. I just wouldn’t have been able to do three shops.”

In the end, after months of negotiating, plans for the new venue fell through and Anthony admits he would have been gutted to give them up.

He added:

“I do really like it down here and the views where it is are stunning. You can see the Three Graces from the balcony, and it’s just beautiful. If it’s a nice sunny day, sitting out with an iced coffee and a piece of cake or some lunch, you’ve got the canal boats passing by, and the paddleboarders and the dragon boats out on the water, so it’s a great little spot.

“It is a bit of a hidden gem and I get people asking me all the time whereabouts we are because basically we’re in the Baltic but not in the Baltic, we’re at the dock but not at the dock, we’re in town but also not in town! It’s its own little area that feels different to anywhere else on the waterfront.”

Weekends are always super-busy, so Fika waterfront will initially open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am until 4pm, starting from Good Friday.

As it gets nearer to high summer, Anthony plans to extend opening hours, moving mornings to 9am and adding Thursdays then Wednesdays too.

He said:

“We’ll see if the weather’s kind to us because it is a very weather-dependent location, although we do have free parking outside for our customers and the Watersports Centre’s which is rare for the city centre.”

Fika waterfront will be serving breakfast dishes – although probably not a full English this year – as well as lunches and the amazing homemade bakes the Woolton shop is known for.

Anthony said:

“We’ll have all our most popular cakes from Woolton plus we might drop a few specials in and we’ll be looking to open a couple of midweek evenings in summer because people tend to finish work then go for a walk along the water.

“Last year we had some live music on the balcony, we had a local guitarist, a guy came with an accordion and a girl played keyboard, and we had a DJ playing nice chilled out music so we’re planning to do that again.”