Next to Nowhere Café

Next to Nowhere Café is a not-for-profit vegan cafe that opens on an irregular basis. To enter, you ring a doorbell on the door next to the News From Nowhere bookshop on Bold Street and make your way downstairs.

The cafe is a colourful and disarmingly ramshackle place, with a huge well-stocked kitchen and enough seating for over a dozen diners. Today’s menu is broccoli soup and bread, with a choice of tomato and basil pasta sprinkled with vegan cheese or mushroom burger for main, and a chestnut biscuit for dessert. Drinks include a variety of teas and coffee, with soy and almond milk.

The pasta is a hearty offering, bursting with sweet basil and fresh tomato flavours. If you’re not well-versed in the ways of vegan food, don’t worry – you won’t be able to tell the difference. The mushroom burger is even better. A thick patty made-up of rich mushrooms, on vegan bread with a tasty little side salad of tomato and lettuce.

The chestnut biscuit might sound like an unassuming prospect but it’s a revelation. Vegan desserts are often difficult to make, but this is thick, moist and sweet – and much more filling than it has any right to be.

Next to Nowhere Café has been one of Liverpool’s best-kept secrets since it opened in 2007. Based in the basement room of the hugely-influential left-wing bookshop, News From Nowhere, it’s run by volunteers and rather than prices, the menu lists suggested donations – so if you can afford more, do so, and help keep this wonderful place running for another decade. The politics are progressive and plain to see, but there’s no political browbeating, just wonderfully friendly people and superb-quality, sustainable food.