The Flower Cup

The Flower Cup which opened this week is a new combined coffee shop/florist on Watergate row. Our blogger Rachel O Kelly  had a chat to the owner Milli Ball .

I’ve opened the place with my husband Kris , and I’m running it on my own with my girls! They’ve been so amazing helping. I’ve only been open since Wednesday.

What gave you the idea of having a combined coffee and flower shop ?

I’ve always wanted to have a coffee shop, since I was about 18 or a tea room. We went to Italy 2 years ago and we travelled around a bit and we thought the coffee shops were amazing, and the pastries and the sandwiches. We came home and since we’ve been together we’ve always wanted to do our own business. We started looking for a shops and we looked at a place on Brook street first, that didn’t happen in the end, it was quite small.

We found this place and scaled everything up. From the day that the moment that we came to see it the idea and the vision grew. It was a blank canvas..

This was where the One Chair exhibition was held earlier this year..

Yeah , Sam Ryley, he’s a friend. I know him from when I used to work in Commonhall. The main thing was getting it ready, it had been an interior design shop and a gallery. It was all the pastels and greenery that influenced the design.

What is the flower side of the business ?

I sell flowers, single stemmed , or you can buy plants. I am not a trained florist, its a hobby and I always have fresh flowers at home. My husband’s aunty is actually a director at Inter Flora so I’ve had a couple of lessons with her and she’s taught me some of the tricks of the trade.

The day before we opened I had someone message me about doing a wedding ! I’m going to keep it small and simple and let it grow. I’ve been doing flowers for The White Horse pub for the last few months and I’ve done a job for Horseradish for the Welsh rally at Eaton Hall. I’m doing Christmas wreathes at the moment

How have you got the message out ?

We have facebook and Instagram. We just tried to push it as early as possible.

Have you had much passing trade?

We’ve been really busy. We just stumbled on the place , we did worry with it being this far down Watergate street and on the rows… we just need to keep pushing it. I hope it will be a place that people purposely come to. Our coffee is Stokes, the are really big over Lincoln way, they are working their way around the UK.

There are a lot of coffee shops in Chester, what makes you stand out ?

We wanted to keep the coffee side really simple. We’re not pretentious, we’re not trying to do anything super Hipster and that’s where the Italian theme came from. All it is, you get a good coffee and food. Its not over complicated.  The bread is from Wallis the Bakers in Saltney and I make the sandwiches fresh in the morning. The pastries are made  by a girl that works down in Havanas.  We have so many more ideas, next year we want to push a campaign about saving the bees with a local bee charity

Watergate street has a lot of independents ..

It’s been so lovely from the day we got they keys, next door at the cartoon gallery are so nice. The tattoo shop pop in every morning now. Its like a really nice feel this street! There is a lot of coffee shops and I’ve always thought Bridge street was nice , but Watergate street is really lovely !

The Flower Cup are on facebook and Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/theflowercupchester/