‘Best café in Liverpool’ to close after 30 years

A family run café that counted Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish and Harry Potter star Ralph Fiennes among its customers is shutting up shop after 30 years.

Maggie May’s has avoided jumping on culinary trends or fads despite its location on Liverpool city centre’s bustling Bold Street, a hub for bars and restaurants.

Its menu and style has changed little over the years, with one of its most popular dishes ‘scouse’ – a traditional meat and potato dish well-known across Liverpool.

But after three decades of long hours and hard graft, the Lea family are calling it a day and moving on – leaving regulars without “the best café in Liverpool”.

Carly Lea, who has helped run the café since her parents – Susan and John Lea – founded it in 1995, said leaving would be a wrench but “the time was right” .

She told the BBC: “We’re all getting that little bit older, we’re all getting a little bit weary.

“It’s been absolutely great. It took a couple of years, like most businesses do, to start finding our feet but, we’ve enjoyed a good couple of decades on the street.

“I think the café could go on but physically we feel as though we can’t go on – which is unfortunate but also it’s very, very real and that’s ultimately the main reason. “

Carly said the gruelling shifts, often topping 12 hours a day, had “taken its toll”.

“But it’s not like a doom and gloom story,” she said.

“Very much the opposite, we’ve loved every single minute of it.”

Carly said she believes Maggie May’s success over the years came from “sticking to what we know” – traditional local food with its background in her mum’s years as a cook in city pub kitchens before founding the business.

Maggie May’s customers span a wide cross-section of society, from football fans heading to Anfield or Goodison Park, to tourists from overseas who return year-after-year.

Over the last three decades Carly has seen children who came in with their parents grow up into adults with their own careers.

The most memorable moments have included serving Sir Kenny on a few occasions, which “big Red” Carly described as a “personal highlight”.

But Carly said the one and only time she has asked for a picture with a customer was when she was “starstruck” by Bafta winning actor Ralph Fiennes in 2023, who popped in for a drink while he was in Merseyside playing the lead in a production of Macbeth.

“Me and my son, we were big fans of Harry Potter, well we still are, so when he came that was a major plus for me,” she said.

“I think I was quite starstruck because it was like; ‘that’s Voldemort’.”

For customers, the news has been a blow.

Anthony McDowell, 54, has been coming to Maggie May’s since the year it opened and said he drops in almost every day.

“Obviously since then the food’s been that nice, the scouse and stuff like that, that I’ve came here ever since,” he said.

“I walk past about four other cafés to get here, it’s only one café in town for me.

“I’ve stayed in hotels in the city that they say have good breakfasts, none of them beats Maggie’s.”

Asked how he felt about it closing down, he said: “Obviously gutted, really gutted, but I know the family well enough.

“I mean I’ve known the family for years and they’re a lovely family, and they’ve spent a lot of hard-working years and I can understand the reasons.”

Carly said the reaction of customers to the announcement Maggie’s is closing its doors for good has surprised her

“It’s been very emotional,” she said.

“People coming in, saying that they’re heartbroken. I guess I didn’t realise the depth of the feelings that people have got for the café until we actually announced that we were going.”

While Carly is ready to move on, she said when they close for the final time on Christmas Eve it will be “very tough”.

“I’m going to get a few boxes of tissues just for the staff,” she said.

“Yeah, it’s bittersweet.”