Birmingham’s beloved vegan cooperative cafe closes doors due to ‘ever-mounting costs’

A popular cafe in Birmingham that was a community space for environmentalists has announced that it will be closing its doors for good.

The cooperative cafe located near the Bullring said that they “couldn’t defeat the ever-mounting costs associated with running a business”. They had first spoken out about their financial struggles in January 2023.

The Warehouse Cafe on Allison Street in Digbeth was located in the Birmingham Friends of the Earth’s environmental community building. The building is the environmental group’s meeting space and included the vegan Warehouse Cafe, Sprocket Cycles, Vesta Living, BrumRadio and Voce Books. They also have office spaces which are used by a community of organisations with shared values.

The vegan cafe - The Warehouse Cafe - is the only one closing its doors, they announced on June 5.

The team said: “Our vision has come to an end. It’s been a helluva ride and we’re beyond grateful to those who have contributed to the successes that we did have. We’re thankful to all the customers who came down to enjoy our food, the folk who ran regular events in our space and to all our neighbours in the building around us.

“We would not have made it this far without you! Although The Warehouse Cafe will be gone, discussions are ongoing about the possibility of coffee service, catering etc continuing in the space and updates will be shared when we have more information on this.”

Meeting rooms will still be available via Birmingham Friends of the Earth and the independent bookshop Voce Books is open as is Vesta Living - which offers a range of sustainable household products.

They added: “It’s very sad and we won’t drag this out any longer, but...We happen to know of five or so people who are now looking for opportunities to work. Our skills include cooking great vegan food, photography, social media marketing, administration and organisation, customer service and more! We’d probably prefer vegan jobs where applicable and as community minded people we’d sooner be looking for work that helps others as well as ourselves.”