A POPULAR vegan cafe in Worcester has closed the doors of its cafe venue to merge the cafe and restaurant into one space.
Be The Change opened a cafe in Worcester's Cornmarket in 2018 and opened a second venue, a restaurant, on New Street in 2021.
However, the owners have now made the decision to combine both the cafe and restaurant at 15 New Street instead of keeping them as separate establishments.
Co-owner Anthony Chesher said: "Our plan is for Be The Change to continue providing the fabulous people of Worcester with delicious vegan food and drink all year around.
"We've chosen not to renew our lease on our Cornmarket venue; a new lease would have been a three to five-year commitment and, bearing in mind the events of the last few years, we thought it was safer to consolidate our services into the one, larger venue at 15 New Street.
"We used to run all of our services from one site for the first three years of Be The Change and it worked really well, so it feels a bit like the good old days again.
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"We own the building at New Street and it's a much bigger venue so it makes sense to choose this location to be the centre of our operations.
"We've had two weeks of running a cafe and a restaurant from New Street now and there's a really great feel about the place - we love it.
"We always hope that vegan food and drink can grow and expand, whether that's with lots of Be The Changes, or with other passionate individuals, putting their ideas out there and being the change themselves.
"For now though, there are no plans for additional Be The Change venues."
Be The Change will open at 10am Wednesday - Sunday with the kitchen taking orders from 11.30am.
There will be spaces intended primarily to be part of the cafe and restaurant and pre-booked meals will have a certain table, however, there will be flexibility for customers to choose where they sit.
A spokesperson for Be The Change on Facebook added: "We're making some changes to our opening hours, the size of our team and the things we say yes or no to.
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"We hope you'll understand that, as a business, we want to be there for you for decades to come, but that this might just mean slowing down a few things, just to look after the well-being of our team.
"We want to thank you in advance for your understanding and your patience for any times we might have to say no and put our own well-being first."
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