Liverpool is famous for its hospitality and our city is blessed with many great pubs, bars, restaurants and cafés.
Having made the most of that offering as a customer, I've enjoyed meeting the people behind these venues through this job. For most of this year, I have written a weekly profile or review on a hospitality venue in our region.
Speaking to the people behind our favourite spots, I've been impressed by their resilience, creativity and commitment amid an economic climate which is far from favourable. The industry is facing unprecedented challenges, with spiralling inflation and the cost of living crisis arriving hot on the heels of the pandemic.
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Running costs are rising for venues while people have less money to spend on going out – it's a perfect storm. As leading North West chef Gary Usher said on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday: "Some serious soul searching for restaurant/pub operators right now. There’s no money to be made anymore. The government has made hospitality a pretty unviable business opportunity in the UK."
However, such an unfavourable environment does not seem to have deterred many people from giving it a go and following their passions. Celebrating that, here are five groups of people that I've spoken to this year who are making things happen in our region's hospitality industry.
Ansil Kharel and Dhanpati Kharel from Momo's
Ansil Kharel and Dhanpati Kharel opened Momo's – found above Liverpool Brewing Company's Taproom on Lime Street – in 2022. Ansil is the son of Netra Kharel, who owns Nepalese restaurant Da Gurkha in Waterloo and Dhanpati is Netra's brother.
Ansil and Dhanpati serve authentic Nepalese steamed dumplings, called momos. As you walk through the bar below and ascend to their restaurant, the smell changes from the familiar pub scent of hops and malted barley to an array of spices.
The food is fantastic and the two are very passionate about what they do, with grand ambitions for the future of opening new venues.
Ansil told the ECHO earlier this year: "I hope we're paving the way for Nepalese food here. It's a mix of Indian and Chinese but the best of both. In my opinion, Nepalese food is better than Indian and Chinese and most other cuisines.
"It's got flavours from the south side of Asia, it's got herbs and seasoning from India, influence from the Himalayas, everything is fresh. And everything is cooked with love, I cook with love, that's what makes my food – I think – taste so good.
"I love cooking and I love seeing people eat my food and enjoy it, because there's no better joy than seeing someone enjoy what you've made with your own hands. I'm so happy that people enjoy it."
The menu was recently revamped, with curries now on offer. It's well worth a visit.
Rob, Pam and Ben Jackson from Top Rope brewing
Merseyside is blessed with a number of fantastic craft breweries. Among them is Top Rope.
It started life when Ben Jackson set up a brewery in his mum and dad's garden at the family home in Childwall, leaving them with no real option but to get involved. Ben and then-business partner Neil Rothwell would brew in Ben's mum Pam and dad Rob's kitchen on weekends before an actual brewery was constructed in the garden.
After the operation found success, the experiment became Top Rope, now known for craft beers with wrestling and '90s pop culture-themed names. Ben, Pam, 65, and Rob, 67, run the brewery together in Bootle's Brasenose Road Industrial Estate – after a spell in North Wales.
You'll find their unconventional beers, such as pale ale Sliced Bread, mosaic pale ale Oatimus Prime, oatmeal stout Megoatron and vanilla ice cream pale ale I-Scream Pale in pubs across the region. Their brewery also opens as a tap room frequently.
Futoon and Noura Qusairy from Yamama
Futoon and her sister Noura Qusairy both moved from Irbid in Jordan to study in Liverpool, drawn by their family's love for Liverpool FC. Together they run Yamama – a Middle Eastern café and kitchen found on Parliament Street in the Baltic Triangle.
As well as serving Middle Eastern-inspired dishes and drinks, it acts as a hub for artists who work with the sisters. The café serves an extensive brunch and lunch menu, built around Middle Eastern flavours, as well as cakes and hot drinks.
Futoon said: "It's just me and Noura – we're the people in the kitchen, we're the people behind the bar, serving the coffees. We're just waiting for things to catch up.
"Everything is Middle Eastern-inspired but we wanted to be smart. We thought we should be smart and creative and we thought about how to bring Middle Eastern and Jordanian flavours and present them for people in Liverpool.
"We came up with the idea of a brunch menu, with a bit of dinner because we serve food until 6. For example, we decided to have everything on toast but people can have the same tastes as all the ingredients are authentic – we have a dish named after our grandma.
"We want to make sure the food is distinctive, full of flavours and fresh. We care about good food – we hate processed food. In Jordan we eat everything fresh, so our menu has so many vegetables."
Andy Scott, Rich Midgley and Chris Welsh from Black Cat
Found on Smithdown Road, Black Cat is a haven for anyone who loves beer. There are 24 keg lines and two real ales behind the bar, while the fridge is stocked with craft favourites.
Many of the draught and cask beers are made by Black Cat in collaboration with Merseyside breweries, including Speke's Big Bog, Liverpool Brewing Company, Carnival and Chapter. Owner Andy Scott thinks their selection of beers can rival any bar's.
He told the ECHO earlier this year: "I think we offer such a good selection but it's not too off-putting. If you're not a craft beer drinker – we have so many students who come in and maybe one of them likes craft beer and three of them know nothing about it – but we've got entry level stuff as well as fancier stuff."
Rich added: "It always starts with one guy with an IPA and his mates with three lagers. Then give it a month or so and there are three of them on IPA."
Andy, Rich and Chris's bar is popular with students and locals. It is one of many great options on Smithdown.
It's also worth saying that Black Cat is not Rich's only contribution to Merseyside's hospitality sector – he is part of the team at the aforementioned Big Bog Brewing in Speke and you can read more about them here.
Alejandra and Isabel Cadaud from The Twins Flavour
Twin sisters Alejandra and Isabel Cadaud run this Colombian restaurant which can transport you from Dale Street to South America.
Originally from Cali in Colombia, the sisters moved from Madrid to Merseyside in 2017. After spells working in Liverpool's pubs and restaurant, they decided to give their own venture a go and opened The Twins Flavour in January of this year.
It has proven a hit with Liverpool natives and South Americans who call the city their home, including the family of Liverpool player Luis Diaz and former Everton defender Yerry Mina before he swapped Merseyside for Florence in the summer.
Alejandra told the ECHO earlier this year: "We've been really busy and we're really happy. The local people have been really open to trying new things and they're really interested in all the things, the spice, the Colombian beer, things like plantain."
Colombian street food options such as empanadas come out of the kitchen at pace, providing the perfect tonic for a drizzly English afternoon.
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