A NEW independent coffee shop is ready to welcome members of the community in the heart of a Chester district.

The Garden Social Coffee Shop will be open from Tuesday, March 2 on Catherine Street, at the site of the former The Keg off-licence in the Garden Quarter, and owners Ewan and Holly Griffiths are keen to serve customers in a Covid-secure way.

The duo have begun their coffee shop venture from very different careers; Ewan was a Special Needs Education teacher locally, while Holly was an occupational therapist at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The pair are hoping to create a community social space for people to enjoy fine coffee and food. To help with that, in accordance with the latest Government easing of lockdown restrictions, they will be able to serve to two people from different households, meeting socially outdoors, from Monday, March 8.

The Garden Social, true to its title, has a delightful walled courtyard garden where customers will also soon be able to sit and enjoy the experience when restrictions allow, while the shop is dog friendly too.

Over the past three months since securing the lease, both have become experts in DIY and connoisseurs of coffee, as both were fully hands-on in the shop refit and they have more recently been sampling and purchasing beans to be freshly ground on the premises.

Ewan said: “The opportunity to open a coffee shop in our community was a dream of mine for a few years.

"I am extremely excited to get going. The transformation that the shop has been through over the past couple of months is something that I am immensely proud of. We want the coffee shop to be a place where everyone feels welcomed. I really think it will come in to its own once current restrictions ease and we can make use of the outdoor seating area through summer and have people sitting in our shop."

Holly added: “We have always sat in coffee shops dreaming about being able to open our own and never thinking it would be possible. To be able to have this amazing space where we can bring people together and share our passion for amazing coffee and lovely food really is a dream come true.

"We have both come from very different jobs so we are hoping to bring our experience to the shop to create an inclusive, community-spirited little haven.

"Chester has a fantastic range of independent traders and we have felt so welcomed. We are over the moon every day and we cannot wait to get started."

The couple, who have been living in the Garden Quarter for just under three years, just a stone's throw away from the shop premises, could see the need for a social space, a central location for those living and working in the Quarter, and to welcome those passing through and from further afield, in the same tradition as in the past, but updated for the tastes of the 21st century.

The premises is in a residential area, is close to the racecourse and the canal and has over many years been a focal point for the community, being previously a pub, a shop and an off licence/video store.

Holly was excited to have received some photos from members of the local history society of the shop and its environs dating back to just after the Second World War, when the community enjoyed shops on all four corners of Catherine Street where the Coffee House is located.

The couple hope they can recapture these trading traditions and the premises will again be alive to the sound of music, chatting and the inevitable aroma of freshly ground coffee.

The venture is a truly local one already, using the services of local media company Umlaut Media for the branding concept and materials and having also secured the skills of Cheshire-based Artist/illustrator Stef Woof who has depicted the area and the shop in a mural which will be permanently on display in the premises.

Ewan added: "It has been lovely – all our neighbours are friendly, it's a pleasure to live here."

There will be locally made bread, milk, and eggs and locally supplied cakes on sale in the premises to support local traders and cut down on food miles.

With plans to expand their offer and include special coffee related events and social evenings, and using their supportive skills to the full, the couple really hope to ‘corner’ the coffee market and put the Garden Social on the map as a Chester ‘must visit’.