City deli expands onto Liverpool’s Dock Road

A Liverpool city centre delicatessen is bucking the trading trend and expanding to a second shop in the South Docks.

Delifonseca proprietor Candice Fonseca will open a new, larger, retail outlet at Brunswick Dock on September 1st with a staff of 20 recruited for the opening. It is a larger version of the current award-winning Delifonseca, based in Stanley Street, which employs 24 people.

Above its basement delicatessen is an up-market restaurant, with acclaimed Liverpool chef Martin Cooper in charge.

The Brunswick Dock property, on the Dock Road, started life as Harry Ramsden’s Fish and Chip Shop, which closed in 2005.  Most recently it was Il Bacino, an up-market delicatessen which had ceased trading. However, Ms Fonseca is undaunted by the failure of that business, which was a start-up. Her plan is to cash-in on commuters, business park workers, local flat-dwellers and drivers unable to park at the original Delifonseca city centre premises.  She also believes that her main rivals are up-market farm shops, whose customers expect free parking.

The new property’s delicatessen will be three times larger than the existing Stanley Street shop, and it will also boast a 60-seater restaurant.  The complex will include a Brough’s Butchers concession privided by the traditional, high-quality family firm, based on the Sefton coast.

“This will be a soft opening, without too much fanfare,” said Ms Fonseca.  “It’s been a long time in the planning and I look forward to steadily establishing the business at Brunswick Dock.  In fact, it could turn out to be bigger business than Stanley Street.

“Our outside catering business, which was an after-thought, has grown and now accounts for 20% of our turnover."

She opened Delifonseca in 2006, after working for 10 years as a feature film production co-ordinator and manager. She was involved in films such as comedian Steve Coogan’s The Parole Officer and 24 Hour Party People, written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, of Crosby.

“But, eventually, I got sick of all the travelling and wanted to put down roots,” said Ms Fonseca. “I moved into the city centre 12 years ago with my partner, who comes from Liverpool.

“Food has always been a great passion in our family and all my part-time jobs have been food-related. I’m interested in Portuguese and Far Eastern food and my life-long ambition was to one day own a deli.

“I love working behind the deli counter and still like waiting on tables, talking to customers about the food.”

“I feel you only succeed in something if you really enjoy it, as you have to work so hard to be successful."