A café with the community at the heart of everything it does is one of our finalists in the Lancashire Telegraph's Best Coffee Shops competition.
Cappuccino @ The Hub Buckshaw, in Buckshaw Village, has built its business around helping everyone in the community – liaising with the church, schools and customers to ensure it is providing a “home from home”.
Pauline Lynch took over the running of the café during the pandemic after the previous owners left and captured the hearts of her customer base after extending the café to fit the Covid-19 social distancing regulations at the time.
"For them to have been voting for us is a great achievement, and it is a nice result for the team to get to where it is today.
“It is a beautiful establishment, and it is home from home. The staff are so good with the customers.
"We have a lot of old people who come in and have a coffee and stay with us for hours and just have a chat.
“It is such a family-run business even though we are not a family, and it is a good community spirit.”
MORE: The 10 finalists in the Lancashire Telegraph Best Coffee Shop competition
Every day the cafe provides a new deal, ranging from fish and chips to free packed lunches, to ensure the community is well catered for and see it as an affordable option to eat out.
Pauline also keeps everyone entertained with a range of events which include a monthly bingo night and during the festive season they are running lunch with Father Christmas.
“We only do fish and chips on a Friday because we get it fresh from Fleetwood market, it is battered and we serve it straight away.”
Working alongside a team of 14 staff they also provide a vast selection of food and drink options with everything being homemade by two “great chefs” or local suppliers.
“The staff are like one big family. No one is any different and we all muck in together, I will go in and pot wash," Pauline added.
“The coffee and cake go down really well because we use local suppliers and we use suppliers from Darwen. We cater as well for gluten-free and vegan.
“Everything we do is for the community and is locally sourced and you are helping and lining their pockets and people like homemade stuff and local communities. Everyone benefits from it I think.”
The impact of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis hit the hospitality industry hard and Cappuccino has remained competitive by focusing on what people want at an affordable price – building a loyal client base.
Over the coming days, we will be featuring each of the finalists in the Best Coffee Shop competition.
To vote, pick up a paper copy of the Lancashire Telegraph. Once all votes have been counted a winner will be announced next month.
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