Vigour - St Helens number one rated Tripadvisor - serving breakfasts

Vigour began life as a Health Kitchen-come-Juice Bar on Bridge Street in 2017 before repositioning into a "casual dining" bar with an expanded menu and small plate focus.

Led by Sutton High schoolfriends Chris Heyes, Anthony Georgiou, and Scott Anderson, the Bridge Street venue has become the number-one-rated restaurant in St Helens by Trip Advisor, with hundreds of customers leaving positive reviews.

It has led to customers from across the North West flocking to their restaurant to sample its menu.

A breakfast dish at Vigour (Image: A breakfast dish served up at Vigour)

Traditionally, Vigour has opened at noon to the evening to cater for the lunch and tea time crowd, but from last weekend it has been opening since 10am to serve a breakfast and brunch menu.

The move is in response to calls from customers who want to visit the "city-style" eating place earlier in the day.

Among the dishes being served up will be English breakfasts, veggie breakfasts, American pancakes and avocado smash and steak and eggs.

Pancakes served at Vigour (Image: Vigour)

Smaller portions are served for children but at half the price.

Vigour bosses are keen to welcome all and to shake off the tag that they are a health kitchen, although they are keen to point out that their food is unprocessed and nutritious.

Speaking to the Star on Friday afternoon, Chris said: "People have asked for years to open earlier - but you have to consider things like staffing, costs and ourselves - but we've decided to  go for it."

Scott added: "We know that people around here want something different - as it's mainly traditional style cafes [in the town centre].

"We want to try to be the main breakfast place in town - not just a place for a fry up and a full English.

"We want to try to pull a wide range of people of people into the town centre - we know being number one on Tripadvisor [for St Helens] helps as the algorithm shows us to a lot people in other areas such as Wigan, Leigh, Liverpool etc..."

From the drinks menu (Image: Vigour)

Chris continued: "We want it to be place for everyone - some still have the view that we are a 'health eating' place and people say 'we can't go there' but we are here for everyone.

"We have 50 per cent off meals - served with smaller portions for children and a lot of people do bring their children to eat here."

The changes mean the weekend opening hours are between 10am and 9pm on a Saturday and 10am to 8pm on a Sunday, with weekdays remaining the same.

Throughout a difficult few years with the pandemic and the changing face of the town centre, the firm has had some testing times but the trio and their team recently celebrated reaching seven years thanks to the support of the community.

Inside Vigour on Bridge Street, St Helens (Image: Vigour)

They remarked how "hospitality isn’t for the faint-hearted, it’s not easy and it’s almost broke us a few times".

Indeed, like many venues they continue to battle with soaring energy bills and other costs. 

However, like other entrepreneurs - such as Ian Pitts - who owns the Church, Imperial and Secret Garden - they are passionate about trying to support the food and drink sector in St Helens.