Vigour celebrates six years in St Helens after shift in menu

Opened by schoolfriends Chris Heyes, Anthony Georgiou, and Scott Anderson, Vigour began life as a Health Kitchen-come-Juice Bar on Bridge Street in 2017.

Shifting into a "casual dining" bar with an expanded menu and small plate focus, Vigour has become the number-one-rated restaurant in St Helens on Trip Advisor, with hundreds of customers leaving positive reviews.

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Vigour expanded its menu to include the popular Sunday roasts (Image: Vigour)

After a tough six years that have seen the business dealing with the effects of covid and the cost-of-living crisis, Chris said the menu-shift has been the biggest change that allowed the business to survive and sustain itself.

Chris said: "We have really weathered the storm in terms of surviving the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, because it has been hard at times to get people through the doors.

"But I think turning the business into something that offers something for everyone has really helped. It's a cool, relaxing place that people love to come in for a Sunday roast, small plates, or just a drink.

"All the positive reviews highlight that we're doing the right thing, but we want to get the message out even further to make people aware of what we offer."

Chris said Vigour's small-plate shift helped to sustain the business (Image: Vigour)

Trying to create a "city centre vibe" in the centre of St Helens, Vigour has also adapted to shifting consumer trends by offering a delivery service in order to reach a wider clientele.

Highlighting the success of the business, Vigour is also highly rated on delivery services such as Just Eat and Deliveroo.

Vigour still offer healthy-option foods and takeaways (Image: Vigour)

Chris added: "The shift to delivery services is something we had to do to help the business survive, but the priority is to get people through our doors and see what we're like inside.

"It's been a testing couple of years, but we have a really good team so I'm really optimistic we can build on our reviews and successes, and have a really good year."

The Bridge Street business is currently St Helens' number one rated restaurant on Trip Advisor (Image: Vigour)