Professional football coach opens The Grounded Coffee Shop at Stamford Arts Centre café
An arts centre café that has been shut for more than a year has opened under new management.
Matthew Wilsher, 39, who lives in Stamford, launched The Grounded Coffee Shop at Stamford Arts Centre in St Mary’s Street yesterday (Monday).
He is employing two members of staff to serve light lunches, cakes and hot drinks from Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.
The venue will also stay open when Stamford Arts Centre is hosting an evening show or cinema screening, and will then serve cheese and antipasti sharing platters to complement a glass of wine from the arts centre’s two licensed bars.
Opening a café is something of a turning point in Matthew’s life.
He spent the first 20 years of his career as a professional football coach and has lived in New York, Chicago and Brazil, where he met his lawyer partner, Isadora.
But with the age of 40 approaching, Matthew wanted to fulfil a different ambition and took on the café lease from South Kesteven District Council, which owns and runs the arts centre.
“Isadora and I came back to Britain in 2017 and needed to put ourselves somewhere on the map,” said Matthew. “We came to visit Stamford and felt it was a good place to be logistically, and having lived here for five years we know it’s a gem. It’s home to a lot of good people.
“Our ethos for the café is to keep things simple. We want it to be down-to-earth, humble, and value for money.
“We don’t serve food that is mass-produced. Our cakes are home bakes, and the meat is from Grasmere Farm.
“We’re serving quiche, toasties and bagels, soups in the winter, and we have milkshakes in flavours such as Kinder Bueno that will be popular with children.
“We also offer free refills of filter coffee and free wifi, so people can come in here to work.”
Matthew doesn’t want to attract ‘a type’ of person to the café. He wants it to appeal to a cross-section.
“Tradespeople who live and work in Stamford can come in for a coffee and a bacon sandwich breakfast, and groups of cyclists can come in for coffee and cake.
“We also hope parents will visit after dropping children off at school, and there is space for people to bring in youngsters inpushchairs.”
In the coming days and weeks Matthew plans to introduce new foods and drinks to the menu, to see which appeal most to customers. These will include some Brazilian-influenced choices, such as açaí fruit, a ‘super food’ often served with other fruits and granola.
“We hope to build a good relationship with our customers, take an interest in them and give them what they want,” he said.
“When I was young, places used to follow the belief that the customer is always right. But a lot of businesses have lost this attitude. Here we will listen to customers and, as far as possible, give them what they want.”