How the Vine Café created a successful business at Freeman Street Market.

The Vine Café is a family run business that opened on Freeman Street Market in 2014, by Shirley and Phil. There journey started after they left their previous cafe from their short tenancy of just 6 months. They looked at a handful of properties and to their surprise nowhere seemed up to the standards they were looking for, they said many places they visited didn’t even have the correct licences which was very scary. Luckily a friend of theirs had heard about the newly refurbished café at Freeman Street Market. Shirley and Phil decided that despite the limited amount of days they could open that they would go and visit anyway. They were delighted to find the café to be vibrant and modern and it was immaculately clean, this sold them straight away and though they couldn’t open as regularly as they desired, they believed it was worth it to have this fantastic premises. Shirley said, “We were despondent we weren’t going to find anywhere but now we are here; we love it!”

At the start things were quiet for Shirley and Phil however, slowly but surely within the first year of business Shirley and Phil found there calling by serving delicious homemade meals. Customers favourite dishes include homemade steak pie and the dessert favourite is homemade lemon meringue and homemade apple pie. Business especially started picking up once Freeman Street Market allowed The Vine Café to open 5 days a week Tuesday-Saturday.

The Vine Café is nearing its 6-year anniversary in October 2020. Shirley said how its like one big family in their café as their customers are all regulars. Their ‘regular group’ are elderly and they find it to be a great way to socialize. Shirley joked that its almost like a lunch club as they all arrive at 11am everyday to ensure they can get a table at their favourite café. The younger staff members, Katie and James are a huge part of business as the customers believe they bring life and positivity to the café, which often helps the elderly to remember their youth.

On the 16th March 2020 the UK went into lockdown meaning all businesses were closed making an exception for the essentials, this did not include cafes. For the Vine café this almost felt like their 5 years of hard work was all for nothing and they had gone right back to the beginning. They struggled through it, receiving support from the market and the government. They took it upon themselves to start delivering as they were aware many of their customers are elderly and they rely on The Vine Café for their daily dinner time meals.

On the 4th July café’s were allowed to re-open with social distancing measures in place, meaning The Vine Café could only offer limited seating and to meet the needs of all their customers they didn’t see it as possible to safely re-open, they gradually started extending their opening times to market days. As they started to re-open the government introduced the ‘Eat out to help out’ scheme starting on August 3rd lasting until the 31st of August. This allowed restaurants and cafes to offer their food at half price on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Shirley and Phil were quick to praise the efforts of the government as without the support small businesses have been offered during the pandemic, they don’t think that The Vine Café would’ve stayed in business.

The Vine Café are now back open on all market days and continue to supply the elderly with their fresh, daily homemade meals. Phil and Shirley plan on retiring in 2023.