Coffee Booth at Sunbridgewells is now open for business

Lina Easter has started her new Coffee Booth business inside the Sunbridgewells site, which features shops and bars and is located in the city centre.

She is running the kiosk herself and started trading for the first time when the site reopened on July 22 after being shut due to the pandemic.

It is an independent business providing coffees made from freshly roasted beans, sourced from several Fairtrade farms around the world. It is Mrs Easter's first coffee-related business.

There is an international flavour to the items she sells with coffee available from countries including Brazil, Uganda, Columbia and India.

Mrs Easter, who is originally from Lithuania and has lived in Bradford for more than 10 years, says she wants to get a mixture of the site's day trade and also people leaving its bars who may want to have a coffee after a few stronger, alcoholic drinks.

Inside the Coffee Booth at Sunbridgewells in Bradford

She said: "This is my own business, it's full-time for me.

"I have been training as a barista for the last five years to learn how to make coffees.

I have always had a passion for having a good cup of coffee

"People can come to the bars at Sunbridgewells and then have a coffee to help them sober up a bit.

"I brew my own coffee as well. I make coffees and sell beans as well so people can make their own coffees at home."

Mrs Easter joked that her husband has allowed her to only stock one type of tea at her booth; Yorkshire Tea.

She says she would like to expand her business at Sunbridgewells and may look to move into one of the site's bigger premises in the future.

Mrs Easter says she is happy to have joined some of the other new businesses at Sunbridgewells.

She added: "Everybody is friendly.

"It's nice to come here and start a fresh. It's been shut for almost two years, which has been a really long time.

"It's like a family here where everyone looks after everybody."

Coffee Booth will be open at Sunbridgewells Monday to Thursday from 11am to 7pm and on Friday and Saturday noon to 10pm.

Sunbridgewells reopened last month. It planned to reopen in June, but that was delayed due to a change in the government’s full easing of lockdown restrictions, which then took place last month.

It had previously only reopened since the first lockdown in March 2020 for a few weeks from August last year. The complex opted against reopening in July 2020, when pubs and restaurants across England were allowed to reopen.

This decision was made last month in the “interest of public safety”.

Sunbridgewells now has measures in place including a one-way system, customers will have to wear masks on entrance to the complex and hand sanitising stations at the complex.

The site’s attractions include a host of bars and businesses selling food and drink. These include The Gin, Rum and Champagne Bar, which was formerly known as The Gin Bar.

The £1.9million complex opened to the public in December 2016, with more than 20,000 visitors in its first two weeks.