Life in the container village that turned a Liverpool street into a ‘tourist spot’

Stacked containers are taking Liverpool’s food scene by storm. The sought-after vendors are nestled in the thriving community of Lodge Lane and have been transformed into a haven of quirky food and drink stalls.

Lodge Lane’s container village has helped a host of start-ups turn from a daydream into a thriving shop, cafe or restaurant. Many of them cited the prime location as the reason their business can operate.

Business owner Mohammed Younis is one of ten vendors who have opened a shop in recent years. He started his brand with his mother’s recipes, £5,000 and a dream. He now owns a thriving vegan grocer in the heart of Toxteth, which he says has been so successful because of the huge variety of customers the community brings.

Younis started Falafel Chef in 2022 and quickly turned the start-up into one of the top businesses on Just Eat. It was so successful that just two years later they are looking to expand to a second location.

The business owner told the ECHO about his business. He said: “Falafel Chef is freshly made food, mainly vegan, we have falafel, salads, wraps. It’s Mediterranean food, I’m from Palestine, so I tried to make the same authentic food here that I had at home, I got recipes from my mother and made some amendments to make it work here.

He said: “I bought the unit in November 2022, then I was online on Deliveroo and Uber until March 2023. It’s my first business in the UK. It took off, I was working 12, 13 and 14 hours a day, every day, seven days a week, so I didn’t have that many holidays, but, it was worth it. When you see the reviews it’s amazing, every day I open the reviews and it just makes my morning, it’s worth it. .

“We also have the highest ratings on Just Eat, customers have told me, I didn’t know. I now have over 300 reviews. It’s just great.”

Younis says the Lodge Lane location and community has helped his business thrive, he said: “Here (Lodge Lane) the food is like kebabs and fast food so I was scared when I opened because it’s healthy food, it’s falafel and vegan, but I opened here because it was what I could afford, I started my whole business with just £5,000 from the savings I made during the pandemic.

“The first two or three months I worked here by myself, 12 hours a day, cooking, preparing and cleaning, and now I have an employee. The location helped the business to thrive, especially on this street because it has a lot of Arabs, it’s multinational, so the people and the community help us. They all try to support us, and the location is great, it was one of the main factors.

“I want to stay here, I will never leave this as long as the council keep the containers here. Hopefully we can get some chairs and stuff for outside. I am looking for another store to expand, but I will never leave the Lodge. Lane. This is where we started and it’s very popular and customers know we’re here.”

Another business owner, who says she never wants to leave Lodge Lane, came across her business after a car accident outside a vendor she frequented. Rachel, who owns The Snack Shack, said: “I was a regular customer at Falafel Chef before I opened my business. One day I crashed outside and went to the owner to get the CCTV and he said he had a shop available, I decided. there and then that I wanted her and here we are.

“I was taking my son to the doctor and I was running late and the guy pulled up and I was like I forgot, because I had to take my son to the doctor, I drove away and this guy was like you got none. my details and it turned out my car was totaled. So I asked Younis who I could get the CCTV footage of and that’s when it all happened.

Snack Shack is a coffee shop that has been located in the container village for a little over a year. Rachel said: “I make quite a lot of my desserts, we have cheesecakes and banoffee pie that I make and of course coffees. I started baking when I opened the cafe and it worked and people started buying them and I was like, ‘Oh, this works.

“I’m open from 8am to 8pm all day, every day, we get loads of customers, it’s very mixed, honestly, it’s the best place to be. I absolutely love it here.” She added: “I feel like the other businesses that have destroyed social media have helped the other businesses here because before them people didn’t know we were here and now it’s become a bit of a tourist spot, people will come from Manchester and because they heard about it on social media. I have a lot of regular customers who also come because they make really good coffee – some customers come five times a day.

“I don’t think I ever want to move, that’s enough for me. We have a little community here, I’ve made friends with so many people. I think it helps business that my shop is a little bit different from everyone else’s.”

Another success story is that of Zezu who opened his business with his business partner a year ago, he believes the location has everything to do with his success. He said: “We always wanted to do something with food, but something different, so we came up with the idea of ​​Chinese infused food.

“We find being here has helped because there are always so many people walking around and coming here, it’s so beautiful. There are always people in the area, the area helped the success. We have people from children to teenagers, middle-aged. -elderly and elderly, there are many people because of the area.”

Not only does the little container village have plenty of food vendors, but it’s also a secret shopping spot—and even has its own perfume vendor, MZNJ. Zak, who works in MZNJ, said: “This is a perfume bar, but it’s a lot like whiskey, we have lots of perfumes.

“We specialize in what you like, and we make it personal for you, and we do it all here. We chose this location because there are a lot of businesses that bring a lot of traffic through here, a lot of cultural people, a lot of people from different backgrounds – Zak helped us be successful.