It's hard to imagine when walking around the bustling Northern Quarter of today, but when artist couple Wayne Lew and Jane Spindler decided to open their own artisan coffee and tea shop in Manchester it was one of the first of its kind. Back in 2010 they decided to open North Tea Power to showcase speciality espresso coffees and loose leaf tea.
And thus, a Northern Quarter institution was born. North Tea Power would go on to pave the way for what would become a coffee house boom in the Northern Quarter.
But on Sunday, the Tib Street cafe will fire up the espresso machine and the milk frothers for the last time. Victims of a "perfect storm" of financial factors, Wayne and Jane have decided they could simply not survive for another summer.
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They announced the news on Instagram earlier this week and the outpouring from customers past and present has been huge from those hailing them the "NQ OGs", a duo who for many "started the coffee movement". Reading those comments has been emotional for the couple, who have poured their heart and souls into the business.
Wayne, 44, says of the closure: "We had been thinking about it really since the pandemic. The reality is, we've been going without taking a wage for so long, we thought how much more could we do take?"
Jane, also 44, adds: "With coffee, when it's hot weather, sales go down anyway, and at this time of year people are going on holiday, it felt like we were dragging out the inevitable."
They were trailblazers in the Northern Quarter when they opened 13 years ago. But the couple have now watched as the industry, and indeed the entire bohemian district, has changed all around them.
And for Wayne it felt they could no longer keep pace. He says: "People are looking for something a bit different in the NQ now from that old DIY, MDF kind of look.
"Everything seems to have changed, everything is kind of slick - new coffee shops opening now look like hotel lobbies. People now expect something more corporate, people wait to be seated and expect table service, it never used to be like that.
"To stay in this area, we just needed to be like that, we needed to be like the rest, we need a big kitchen. You need to keep getting a new crowd, new people in, and if we weren't gaining that section of the audience then that's our bad."
When the couple first opened North Tea Power the only other hospitality operators were Common on Edge Street and Teacup on Thomas Street (which closed in 2021).
Jane says: "We were the first speciality coffee house. I remember when we first learnt to do latte art and people were blown away - they were saying "what is this"?"
They caused such a stir that as the "big boys" of the coffee world headed to town, they would get staff from competitors coming in to "spy" on what they were doing. Wayne laughs: "One competitor we discovered was even turning our A board outside to point in the wrong direction. Some would come in and leave flyers saying "come to us and get a free coffee' it's crazy thinking back".
But, as the years rolled on, while other "OG" businesses in the area invested in refits, it's something that simply hasn't been an option for North Tea Power - and they've continued to work from a tiny kitchen inside the premises. Jane sighs: "It's difficult to make money on a coffee where it costs £3.50 a time."
Wayne believes that the culture now towards the "new" will shift the types of businesses we will see in the Northern Quarter moving forward, too. He says: "I think you will see smaller, more short lived places, it will be a fashion thing.
"You're already seeing it now, where businesses come and then 12 months later they are replaced and it becomes something new - a pizza place, then a burger place, then a BBQ place, as the trends change."
For Wayne and Jane, mounting costs, coupled with the historic rent arrears from the national lockdown, meant it was no longer viable to continue in Manchester. They will now focus on Mother Espresso, their second café which in Liverpool.
Wayne says: "We've felt we've done as much as we can in the space here, and I'm sure there will be people queuing to come into this unit after we have gone.
"Mother is a larger space for us in Liverpool, and we're able to focus more on the food as well as the coffee because we could see that change coming in."
Reading all the comments from friends and customers has been emotional for the couple, who are parents to a 7-year-old and 4-year-old. Wayne says: "We've been here so long that's we've become part of the furniture, people have so many memories here, they met friends here, they shared important moments in their life here.
"One day we'd love to come back, and we're going to miss Manchester so much because we lived here for almost 20 years before having children."
They held a "leaving party" in the NQ on Friday night, while today (Sunday, June 18) will be the official last day of service at the Tib Street café. Jane wipes away a tear when we meet as one of their regulars speaks of just how much the place has meant to him.
Businessman Danny Misell has used North Tea Power as his unofficial "office" and is devastated that it will close for good next week. He says: "Every meeting I've had, every work call, everything for me has been built from here. This has been my life.
"I'm actually gutted. When you're far from home and you think of home, this is what I think of."
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