Baby E Coffee & Deli Brings 'Good Food and Good Vibes' to Liverpool's Commercial District

Descend the stairs into the basement of this iconic grade listed building and you’ll find Baby E; rustic exposed brick, towering ceilings, industrial-style beams and cellar windows that offer a snapshot into the lively and diligent business community of Liverpool’s Commercial District.

From living in London’s Bermondsey to Australia’s Melbourne, elements of Owner & Chef Lauren Clinton’s travels are visible in every aspect of Baby E Coffee & Deli. With the innovative branding and interior, the alternative menu and the overall vibe of this cool and quirky eatery, you could be anywhere.

So, what exactly is Baby E? It’s a bustling coffee and deli that serves all-day brunch and transforms into an intimate deli bar of an evening, proclaiming ‘good food and good vibes’ as it’s mantra. It’s one of those rare places that gracefully metamorphoses from morning to evening, and a place where both eggs benedict and coffee or wine and jazz are equally apt.

Like most entrepreneurs, Lauren has quite the story to tell. Completing her Business Management degree, she packed up and moved to Melbourne working in coffee shops and kitchens and simultaneously discovering where her real talent lay: “I was lucky enough to work with owners who let me design specials menus and introduce new tastes and flavours. It was in Australia where I realised my passion and knew that working in the food industry is what I have to be doing.”

Lauren moved back to her hometown and used her degree to begin a career in finance in order to fund her long-term ambition of owning and running, alongside her partner Chris, an eatery in Liverpool. Working in the iconic Liver Building, she meticulously analysed people’s lunchtime rituals (where they were eating, what they ate, how much they were willing to spend) to shape her eventual food offering and brand.

For nine months, Lauren weighed up venues on Castle Street, Wood Street and Bold Street realising the battle she was up against in burgeoning business rates for premises across Liverpool City Centre. It was only when walking home from work she came across a vacant space in grade listed The Temple building on Dale Street: “I spotted this venue by chance and straight off the bat I wanted it and knew it had to be mine. We pursued it and here we are.”

Late 2016, Lauren began working with Senior Business Adviser at The Women’s Organisation, Claire Pedersen, to get her business idea off the ground. The doors to Baby E officially opened in June this year, operated by Lauren and her partner Chris, as well as a small but extremely talented team of five: “the support from The Women’s Organisation was unbelievable. It was so helpful to bounce ideas back and forth to my business adviser, as she had worked with other aspiring and established food businesses and knew industry trends, what works and what doesn’t.”

A fervent lover of quality homemade food, Lauren tries to push the boundaries of her menu by putting a unique spin dishes. She has been inspired by delis and the nature of customers ‘picking and choosing’ what they want to eat. Baby E prides itself on serving, where possible, locally-sourced fresh ingredients delivered daily, meaning the menu will adapt to seasonally. Current menu customer favourites include: bangers & hash, shakshuka baked eggs, fluffy pancakes and pesto potatoes. Having travelled far and wide to find the right bean, Baby E also offers specialty sourced coffee from HasBean of Manchester and Lauren has invested time into training her baristas.

Lauren’s business idea evolved once she secured her premises: “the initial idea was a coffee shop that served all day brunch but when we took on a space of this calibre, I thought it would be a sin to shut the doors at 5pm. The idea of a deli and wine bar was born out of the nature of the premises”.

Baby E now caters to evening-socialisers offering a small but fine selection of wine, gin or beer to be enjoyed alongside a cheese board. Lauren and Chris are connoisseurs who have carefully selected a white and red wine to pair fantastically with the cheese and meat on offer. Now, having expanded to host live music including jazz nights, corporate bookings and offer an online ordering system, Lauren credits the company’s ‘openness to opportunities’ as her recipe for success.

With a degree in business management and a burning passion for homemade, hearty food, setting up her own food business was a venture surely written in the stars. As the business develops and grows, Lauren hasn’t lost sight of the reason she started out and her love of cooking: “I’m a business-owner, but my day-to-day role is a chef in the kitchen – it’s where I love to be.Being your own boss is the best and hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I’m so proud of what me and my team have achieved. The best feeling is to go home every night knowing I’ve cooked and served people food they’ve enjoyed”.

Lauren is already looking to the future and, in the next two years, hopes to have a second venue in the pipeline. Her advice to aspiring-entrepreneurs? Lauren said: “You’re a fool if you go into a business thinking you know everything. I think it’s important to know your strong points, but also know your weaker points and get advice and support from Enterprise Hub to fill in those gaps.”

To find out more about Baby E, head to their website or follow them on Instagram.

And if you'd like to find out more about how our team can help you to start a business through our Enterprise Hub programme then call us on 0151 706 8111.

Antonia Brings A Taste Of Her Heritage to Castle Street

Liverpool’s architectural haven, Castle Street, is renowned for its vast array of eateries, bringing international flavours, delicacies and cultures right to our doorstep. If you’re a regular of Castle Street’s food quarter, you may have spotted its latest addition, Heritage, which prides itself on serving up a range of ‘made from scratch’ recipes from around the world.

Founder of Heritage, Antonia, grew up in a family of food-lovers where quality homemade cooking was the way of life. Her father owned a pizzeria and Antonia became accustomed with an appreciation for culinary from a young age.

Pursuing a different career path, Antonia continued to dream of owning her own restaurant but the time never felt right:“My husband and I always wanted to open a restaurant, as he has been a chef in Liverpool for 20 years. However, with having a young family and a career in teaching, it never felt quite the right time”.

With the support of her family, Antonia decided to step back from her 11-year position as a primary school teacher and take the leap of faith. This gave her the time and space to develop the business idea before contacting The Women’s Organisation and Start-Up Direct for additional support.

Working alongside our Business Adviser, Yan Miao, Antonia was able to get the guidance she needed to make Heritage a reality, “My sessions with Yan were great, sometimes, you just need a little bit of reassurance that you are on the correct path. At times it was nice just to move away from the madness and speak to Yan in a neutral place”.

Having looked at several premises around Liverpool, Castle Street seemed like a natural fit for Heritage, which hosts the daytime workers of Liverpool’s commercial district as well as a high volume of tourists and socialisers. And what makes Heritage stand out? Heritage is unique in terms of the food it offers, everything is made from scratch using traditional methods such as brining chicken for greater tenderness and curing their own bacon in-house for breakfasts.

With a degree in textiles, Antonia has an eye for design and took control of building the brand of Heritage itself. The name ‘Heritage’ means a tradition or set of values passed from preceding generations, and this seemed fitting for the family-run business inspired by the cooking of fathers, grandmothers and friends.

Taking on the role of Project Manager and overseeing the development of the business, Antonia credits never losing sight of her vision: “we have continually reverted to reminding each other that we must stay true to our product ‘Heritage’ – the reason why we opened our restaurant. So far, this mantra has worked. We have seen our business grow, especially over the past two months and we are continually evolving.” 

This large-scale venture took Antonia on a whirlwind journey to entrepreneurship and Heritage officially opened its doors early February. The eatery prides itself on having a small but extremely talented team, "With our business growing we now have 12 members of staff, some of which have been with us since the start of business. For us, as our business develops, it's extremely important to maintain quality service, standard of food and a great experience. Therefore investing time in our staff is key."

Six months from opening and Antonia has only just begun to acknowledge her own successes: “there is no denying how stressful a big venture like this is. Now, as our business is starting to bed in and become more established, we’ve had a little bit of time to think about the amazing achievement to date – we are four very proud business owners.”

Despite the twists and the turns along the way, the biggest reward for Antonia is “seeing customers enjoying our food and drink and gaining fabulous feedback”. about what she learnt along the way, Antonia urges aspiring-entrepreneurs to preempt diversions from the original plan and gain advice and support from others with experience, such as The Women’s Organisation, where possible.

If you want to find out more about Heritage, you can contact them directly on hello@eatatheritage.co.uk / 0151 236 8554 or visit their website on www.eatatheritage.co.uk.

Be sure to stay connected by following them on Facebook and Twitter! #ThisIsOurHeritage