A cafe has opened in Newtownabbey this week to provide a meeting point for the local community.
The owners of Ten Coffee on the Jordanstown Road, friends Alison Johnston and Sarah Reed, were heartbroken when their favourite coffee shop announced it was closing a few months ago. The pair were regulars, often popping in on their regular walks during lockdown.
They initially joked about setting up their own cafe in the spot before deciding to turn this thought into a reality. Despite challenges posed for businesses by the current cost of living crisis, they said it was important to them to keep a spot open to support the area.
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Speaking to Belfast Live a day after they opened for the first time, Alison said it's "great" to finally see their ideas become a reality.
"The cafe that was here before us would have been our local. During covid, we would've met up every day for a walk and went there for a takeaway coffee, so going there became a habit of ours," Alison explained.
"When the girl said she was closing we were like oh my gosh where are we going to go for our coffee? It quite dramatically turned into a question of, should we do this? Which seems like a bit of an exaggerated way to guarantee yourself a cup of coffee!
"That was about three or four months ago, and we just thought we would give it a go. My background is retail but Sarah has worked in hospitality for years, she's opened other cafes and she's a baker as well, so she makes everything herself.
"It gave us an opportunity to put our skills together and do it as a combined effort which has been really nice."
Alison said the pandemic really heightened the importance of community, which was something they put at the forefront when opening up Ten Coffee.
Although recognising things are "very hard at the minute" for the business community amid the rising cost of living, they wanted to help provide a local space for people to catch up with friends and family.
Alison said: "It was amazing the amount of people who came in yesterday and said how much they missed being able to go somewhere local, and sit in with a cup of coffee and a treat, or even have a wee lunch with a friend. It was the experience with other people that was a big part of their life.
"Through covid, we all saw how important community was. For us, our attitude to it was the cafe was a big part of our life initially as it was what we did during covid, we went there on our walks.
"That's how we see coffee shops - an opportunity for people to meet up and catch up, so we were just really keen we wanted to have something like this in the area.
"When the cafe shut, we suddenly realised there wasn't a whole lot around here for people. It was really important for us to make sure people could continue to come out and walk to a cafe near them.
"When we started working on the cafe three months ago, things weren't as bad as they are now, but we still felt as we were doing it, what we were doing was right. We believed in what we were doing and we were dedicated to seeing it through.
"Having people through the door and hearing them say something like this was needed in the area - it made it all feel worth it. We just hope people will want to continue to come out and catch up with friends."
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