Pancake stacks, festive afternoon teas and Miami vibes - what to expect from Love Lily at Herrington Country Park

Earlier this year, we reported on how Love Lily will be taking over the empty cafe unit at Herrington Country Park, and we’ve been along to see how the site is progressing.

The former Cafe at the Park unit had stood empty for a year, but there’s much anticipation for Love Lily arriving at the popular park.

We can reveal that the new Love Lily, which will operate as a sister site to Roker, will open in November.

Over the past few months, work has been ongoing to totally revamp and insulate the site, including doubling the footprint of the kitchen, with the fit out to start in the next couple of weeks.

It’s an exciting expansion for Sunderland sisters Helena and Gemma Ganley who set up the first Love Lily, named after their nana Lily Thompson, in Pier Point in 2017.

Initially operating as a tearoom, they later diversified into colourful American-style pancake stacks and brunches in pretty pink surroundings, which really captured people’s imaginations.

Today, their popularity is such that queues form regularly at weekends and on the most recent Pancake Tuesday, when there is always a constant line of people, they whipped up 2,744 pancakes.

Fans of their pancakes won’t be disappointed at the new site, which will have the same menu as Roker – with added extras.

While space is limited at the Roker site, with 28 covers, the Herrington Country Park site will have space for 72 covers indoors, with a further 50 on the revamped patio outside.

The larger space means they can also offer a separate take away area for walkers wanting to take salad boxes, sandwiches, ice creams, cakes, hot chocolates and more into the park.

They will also be able to accommodate functions at the back of the site for baby showers and more, something they can no longer offer in Roker due to the constant stream of day-to-day custom.

Helena said: “We love the setting at Roker, but there’s certain things we just can’t facilitate there, such as takeaways and private functions.

"With this site we’re able to do all the things we can’t in Roker because of the size.

"We’d been looking at a second cafe premises for three to four years, with units in Seaham, Jesmond and Durham, but we decided to keep the business and jobs in Sunderland.

"Like Roker, we wanted a destination site with great views, as opposed to a city centre unit. When we heard about this, we put forward our submission to the council (which owns the site) as it’s perfect.

"Opposite, you have Penshaw Tearooms, which we love and have been going to since we were little girls, and we really want to complement that offer.”

The new site, which will create 20 jobs with recruitment ongoing, will be fully accessible and also has the benefit of free parking.

Since the announcement that they would be opening a second site, there has been a wave of support from their loyal customer base.

"It’s been really humbling and emotional to think that we’re so well thought of in the area,” said Helena.

The cafe will be open seven days a week for walk-ins, but people will be able to reserve tables for afternoon teas, which will start with a festive theme.

Speaking about how the site will look, Gemma said: “It will be in keeping with the theme of Love Lily, but we’ll be updating it. So there’ll be lots of pink and foliage walls in keeping with the park theme, a huge mural on one wall, as well as Miami-style Art Deco influences.

"The restaurant area will also be separate to the take away area so we’ll be able to give people the best restaurant experience possible without people queuing around them, which is difficult with some of the central seats in Roker.”

While the regular Love Lily hours will be 9am - 4pm in the winter and 9am - 5pm in the summer, they will be increasing the hours to coincide with events at the park such as drive-thru movie nights and Kubix Festival.

*Anyone interested in applying for a job at the new Love Lily can contact [email protected]