Spooky night at cafe
APOPULAR Southport café bar is hosting a night of ghosts, ghouls and goblins to celebrate Hallowe’en.
An expert storyteller will entertain diners at Lord’s Café Bar with tales of ghostly goings-on this month. The event takes place at 7.30pm on October 27 and attendees will also get a hotpot dinner. Tickets cost £10.
Lord’s owner Fred Burnell said: “We’ve got Ken Pye off Radio Merseyside coming for the event. He does guided tours around Liverpool and we’ve asked him to come and do a talk about Halloween and spooky goings on in support of Spooktown.”
A similar event will take place on December 8, when Ken will be chatting about the history of Christmas and its many traditions. Attendees to the Christmas event will receive a mince pie and glass of mulled wine.
Lord’s has been on Lord Street for 11 years, originally opening as a coffee shop, before evolving to offer more food and events. The venue is available for hire for parties and events for up to 80 people.
Fred said that consistency and constant improvement have been key to the business’s popularity. The business has won three Ambassador awards in recent years and is one of just 27 establishments deemed to have the consistent high standards to be a member of the Southport Restaurateurs Association.
The café bar employs nine people, some whom have been there since day one and some who have been there for around eight years. Fred is planning to take on three more parttime staff as business continues to grow, particularly with other businesses starting to thrive in the area.
Businesses such as Peaky Blinders, Corridor, the Inn Beer Shop and the refurbished Bold Hotel have all helped bring people to an end of Lord Street which was previously neglected.
Fred said: “It’s starting to pick up and we’re starting to get some good quality business here. It’s a winning combination really.
“Our business has grown year-onyear since day one. Last year was our biggest year and this year we’re 15% on last year.”
“We refurbish once every two years and update the menu every few months. We’ve gradually evolved from a coffee shop to more food-based and our type of food is definitely more like a restaurant than a cafe.”