I’m not entirely certain whether it’s courage or blind confidence
that would inspire one to open up a new coffee shop in Woolton Village, but I
imagine it’s a certain degree of both.
Although the locals of this South
Liverpool suburb love a good brew (I should know, I am one) there are already a
multitude of similar places to choose from within throwing distance of the new
Brew and Bagel on Woolton Street.
There is of course The Elephant of Simon Rimmer fame who
serve coffee and breakfasts 5 days a week. Then there’s The Old Hardware Shop
who against all predictions are thriving with their new entirely vegan menu,
and lest we forget the brilliant One Perfect Forest. The latter a Scandi-themed
coffee shop and crowdfunded project that has gone from strength to strength
these past few months.
Despite the competition, and less than one month after the
official opening of Brew and Bagel, business is rapidly ticking over. This
tiny, hole-in-the-wall café really does give a new meaning to intimate dining (there
are just three tables) but what it
lacks in size it certainly makes up for in character. There’s a counter
bursting with homemade cakes. Freshly picked flowers are propped up in dainty
glass jars. A bog-standard order of Yorkshire tea comes with a cow-shaped milk
jug and a teapot sporting a pom-pommed tea cosy. It is undeniably endearing.
The food, however is what makes this place worth coming to.
In contrast to the homely, cosy vibes of the rest of the shop the food on offer is
confident, sophisticated and extremely well-made. A mean-feat at the best of
times but when you’re cooking breakfast on a counter top smaller than your
average door mat it’s even more impressive.
It’s breakfast yes, but it’s breakfast done properly.
Super-soft seeded bagels pooling with salty butter are topped with all sorts of
breakfast goodies like huge butchers sausages, piles of crisp streaky bacon and
creamy clouds of scrambled eggs. There are mountains of freshly smushed
avocado, slithers of smoked salmon a proper, runny egg yolks. It is a simple
but brilliant example of what a good breakfast should be.
In an area where there are back-to-back coffee shops this
one is somehow managing to elbow it’s tiny-self in there and for that I say,
good on them. Bring on the bagels.
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