New York inspired coffee bar to open in Liverpool

A New York-inspired coffee bar is opening in Liverpool city centre.

The owner of Switch CoffeeBar, John Dunnington, decided to open the venue after living in New York and coming across similar concepts. When he returned home to Liverpool he couldn't find anything that filled the gap.

Jon, who relocated to America in 2016, said: "Switch was born out of a passion for coffee and wanting to introduce my experience of living in New York with Liverpool." Jon moved with friend, Anthony Packwood, who became in business partner in 2021 when they founded OVO Vodka.

He added: "While drinking in and around America, I started to become really passionate about coffee and saw the opportunity to bring ideas to the North West. The idea for Switch CoffeeBar came from seeing a popular NYC-based coffee shop closed with neon lights inside.

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"I thought that it would make a great bar space and on my next trip back to Liverpool, I've always come back every few months since moving, I started viewing vacant units in the Ropewalks area where I'd previously drank." Based in Wolstenholme Square, Switch CoffeeBar will transition from day to night. From coffee by day to cocktails by night, it will provide a relaxed afternoon venue by day before the venue makes the "switch into an evening ambiance."

Jon, who is from Liverpool and now splits his time between his hometown and New York City, is hoping Switch will bring an entirely new all day destination to the city. Jon said: "I found our unit in Wolstenholme Square and knew that it was perfect for Switch.

"When creating our signature coffee-based cocktails, I even worked alongside fellow Scouser and NYC-based mixologist, Jay Johnson, who emigrated to the US five years ago. Since living in New York, I always knew that I would eventually return to Liverpool and Switch CoffeeBar is the first, of hopefully many, ways to bring a little bit of my last few years of experiences in America to the city."

Operations Manager, Joe Jackson, added: "Switch CoffeeBar is forging the gap between day to night; from coffee to cocktails, it’ll be the perfect all day destination for grabbing your morning coffee, gathering with friends, business meetings, freelance and remote working, enjoying a date night or making a night of it with our carefully selected cocktail list.

"Our vision for Switch CoffeeBar is for our community to visit us for their daily coffee where they can sit and relax, catch up with friends or take a minute out of their day for themselves. By 5pm, we’ll make quite the transition to amp up the atmosphere, taking our guests from day to night with an obvious ‘switch’ and the introduction of our coffee-based cocktails. We can’t wait to reveal more and show everyone exactly how we’ll be doing that from the interior, to the music and menu."

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