Organic supermarket to open on Bold Street

WITH Bold Street’s reinvention as home to some of Liverpool’s most popular restaurants, you might wonder why the one-time "Bond Street of the North" hasn’t attracted much in the way of new food retail outlets to match.

From time immemorial it has been largely left to the ever-reliable Matta’s family to keep our kitchens healthily stocked.

Now, though, an “organic and natural food market” is preparing to join the Bold Street bunch. Called Liv, it is due to open in Radiant House, the art-deco former home of the Liverpool Gas Company, around March or April this year. The team behind the store describe it as a “modern concept” that will offer customers “a unique, artisan-style twist on the traditional basket shopping experience”.

The Liv “concept” will slip into the void left by the departing Rex “concept store”, promising shelves full of organic, natural and healthy foods, an “artisan” bakery, and the Liv Eatery which hopes to offer “one of the healthiest and most natural breakfast and lunch options in Liverpool”.

Liv is being launched by the team behind Healthy Foods Online, a Liverpool-based website which supplies “the best in healthy, organic and free-from foods”. Along with their stated emphasis on quality products sourced from across the world, they also make much of their ethical policies, recycling commitments and involvement in local charities including regular food donations to the Whitechapel Centre.

As Liv embarks on its mission to transform a lifestyle concept into a Liverpool reality, it will be interesting to see if it can successfully turn Radiant House into a regular stop for food shoppers in search of something different. After all, there are already plenty of indulgent possibilities on Bold Street, but will Liv turn out to be the city’s cup of herbal tea?