Help Our Hospitality: Quirky Northampton cafe ‘sells out’ despite facing ‘astronomical’ price rises

For this week’s Help Our Hospitality coverage, we spoke to a woman who has played an integral role in Northampton’s hospitality industry over the past decade.

Liz Cox, a former landlady and now the owner of a quirky cafe and bar in St Giles’ Street, has backed this campaign and told us all about how her business is getting on.

Located at the heart of the town centre’s Cultural Quarter, Liz told this newspaper The Eccentric Englishman is “doing really well”.

She said: “We’ve sold out every Saturday for the past couple of months. We know how hard it is for people to visit with the cost of living crisis, but the support has been amazing.”

The venue has refrained from putting its prices up, as in Liz’s eyes it is more important to get people through the door and give them value for money.

“It’s a really hard balance,” said Liz. “The cost of food is always rising and dairy products are astronomical.”

They have managed to make cuts to their electricity bill by removing certain appliances from the kitchen, but there is no way around food price increases.

Liz is known for her delicious cheesecakes and says a key ingredient, cream cheese, has gone up by at least a third per tub since January.

Although the business owner knows it is a difficult time to show support, she says anything anyone can do will ensure there are quality businesses left standing when we come out of this crisis.

“People are now choosing independents more often,” said Liz. “We even have out of town visitors because of our good reputation with customers, recommendations and positive word of mouth.”

To give back to customers, Liz has listened to feedback and now offers even more food as part of the afternoon tea at The Eccentric Englishman.

The cafe owner has an interesting past in the hospitality industry, which began with managing a drag show in Lanzarote for 10 years.

Liz offered a three course meal ahead of the show and after a decade, she traded Lanzarote life to become the landlady of the Old Five Bells pub in Kingsthorpe.

Her and her partner ran the roost for five years, after they were given three months to turn the venue around, but she says “things were never quite the same when the pandemic hit”.

Liz said: “We wanted a quiet life as we grow older and setting up The Eccentric Englishman was always my dream.

“We jumped into the unknown as we knew we would never do it otherwise, and it has been such a positive move.”

Excitingly, the venue has just started offering new themed bottomless brunch quizzes.

A Disney one was held last weekend, with princess themed coloured cocktails and a cash prize for the quiz winners, and it was an “amazing success”.

The other themes in the pipeline are Harry Potter, Friends, Elvis, and the eighties.

When asked what her proudest moment has been since setting up The Eccentric Englishman, Liz said: “My job is to make people smile.

“When we were really busy last week, I realised how much we make people smile and it can’t get better than that.”

To keep up with what The Eccentric Englishman has coming up, visit their Facebook page here.