A new coffee house and bar with a focus on mental health and wellbeing is opening in Manchester.
The Feel Good Club has taken over the 2,800 sqft space in the newly-restored Hilton House in the Northern Quarter and will be welcoming guests for food, coffee, drinks and a range of events.
Created by married couple Kiera and Amie Lawlor-Skillen, the Feel Good Club was originally started as an online community.
It first launched six years ago when Kiera, who was recovering from an eating disorder, shared her experiences of recovery. After a while, Kiera got a full time job and the club went on the back burner for a few years, but it was always something she knew she wanted to return to.
Things really got going in 2018 after Kiera and Amie got married. They were making merchandise in their bedroom, printed with positive messaging that had helped them along the way. But this wasn’t just about selling clothes.
Kiera said: “We always had the idea that we wanted to create something bigger than a clothing brand. We wanted the clothing to kind of start the community of what we were doing to then be able to bring it to a physical space.”
Just two years later, and despite a global pandemic, the pair has managed to secure investment and realise their dreams of bringing their online community into a physical space.
Kiera said: “It’s a coffee shop, it’s a bar, you can get some food here. I hope it will be a place where people feel like they can be themselves, where they can feel comfortable, they can meet like-minded people, they can come to a creative space.
“We encourage conversation, we encourage people to be themselves and to explore what it is that they want to do.”
What’s on the menu?
The café will serve food from 9am with a range of breakfast and lunch options including loaded crumpets and sourdough toast.
“I absolutely love crumpets,” says Kiera.
Diners can choose a base of either crumpet or sourdough and then select one topping or as many as they like from a choice of halloumi, mushrooms, beans, cheese, avocado and more.
There are Feel Good smoothie bowls and porridge for breakfast, and lunch options include a tempura cauliflower and mango bagel and a selection of salads.
Also on the menu is a cheese and onion crisp sandwich. “Because it’s the ultimate comfort food, it makes me feel good every time I eat it,” says Kiera.
Currently serving food until 3pm, they hope in time to be able to host pop up events in the evening in collaboration with other independents in the city.
There will also be a bar serving beers, wines and other drinks, as well as coffees made from their own ‘Feel Good Club’ house beans, made by local roasters Heart and Graft.
“It’s really really good, if I do say so myself,” says Kiera.
‘A space where people feel good’
As well as being a place to come and enjoy food and drink, the goal is to ‘to help people become the happiest versions of themselves’.
All the staff are trained to provide mental health support and people are welcome to speak to them about how they are feeling.
Kiera said: “For us, it’s about people coming into the space, they can come in without judgement, wherever they’re from, whoever they love.
“Our team are all mental health trained as well, so it’s kind of a place where you can come and be completely yourself. You can have some good food, some coffee or a beer.”
Throughout lockdown, the Feel Good Club hosted weekly live streams to help those who were struggling with their mental health.
Each week, Kiera and Amie invited artists, wellbeing coaches, fitness instructors and others to join them on Sundays from 9am to 5pm for a live stream all about self-care.
Even now, months later in the café, they are still getting people coming into the space and telling them how much this helped them during what was a really difficult time.
Kiera said: “Amie and I are very open and honest on social media, we’ve shared the whole story. So that people can see that we’re just two people who had a goal and this is what we’ve been able to create.
“We kind of just want to inspire people to do what it is that they want to do.”
The space
The Feel Good Club is on the ground floor of Hilton House on Street which has been completely renovated over the past few months.
The large, open-plan space has been completely transformed with a fully-stocked bar tiled in pastel pink and a small shop stocking all the Feel Good Club merchandise.
Large windows run all the way along two sides of the space, looking out onto Port Street and Hilton Street.
There are lots of different seating options to choose from, bench seating by the window, individual tables, a sofa area with stools made from kegs, floor seating and two large cosy armchairs facing each other.
Kiera said: “The way that we’ve created it is to allow people to feel welcome and to sit and behave how they want to.”
A large greenhouse at the back of the space provides a private seating area for larger groups (up to six people under current guidelines).
On the walls, they will be showing work of a different local artist every few months. The café won’t take any profit from the exhibitions, it’s all about supporting local people.
Any sales made will be put into a Feel Good fund and will be given to the artist and their chosen charity.
What’s on
As well as the quarterly exhibitions, The Feel Good Club will host a programme of events which includes comedy evenings on the first Wednesday of the month.
Comedian, Harriet Dyer, who used to run Barking Tales at the Zombie Shack – a comedy night in Manchester all about mental health – will now be hosting her nights at The Feel Good Club.
There will also be open mic nights, candle making workshops, drawing clubs and more.
“I think when you get to a certain age, you kind of lose your passions, or you forget to try new things and we want to be that reminder for people that you can come in, you can do some drawing, you can meet new people.
“When Covid’s finished we’ve got some long tables where it’s going to be a table for people who specifically want to meet new people. And if you go and sit on that table, then it shows that you’re open to conversations with another person.”
Once they are able to, the venue will also host Freelance Fridays where people who work for themselves can come down, meet like minded people, support each other, share ideas and perhaps, where their businesses align, form partnerships too.
Open now
The Feel Good Club coffee house had its soft launch last weekend and has been open for takeaways Monday to Wednesday this week.
The official launch is on Saturday 17 October and they will be open from 8am to 6pm Monday to Wednesday, 9am to 9pm Thursday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday.
For more information and updates, visit: instagram.com/wearefeelgoodclub.
