Sunderland's Love Lily opens for business in Herrington Country Park - here's what to expect

A sister site to the hugely-popular Love Lily in Roker, the new cafe has opened following a total transformation of the former Cafe at the Park unit, which has been empty for some time.

It’s set to be a major boost to the park offering, with food and drink available for sit-in or take away for walks in the park.

The menu of the original Love Lily, including its famous American-style pancakes, breakfasts, brunches and cakes, is on offer. But, at three times the size of the Roker site, with 72 covers inside, and a further 50 on the revamped patio area for dog walkers to sit, it’s even bigger and better.

It’s a proud moment, and major investment, 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.

Gemma said: “We’re really excited to welcome people through the doors. We've had so many messages of support from customers, as well as other local businesses. As the fit out has been taking place, we’ve had lots of people popping by asking to see inside, there seems to be a lot of excitement about our arrival here, which is great.

"We’ve really been able to boost our offering here as we’ve had more money to invest, which we couldn’t do when we first started out. We’re limited with space in Roker, but here we can have people queuing for take away, separate to the cafe, so it doesn’t interrupt the restaurant experience.

"We’re also really excited to be able to offer a section for private hire, and we’ll open bookings for that shortly.”

Menu options include Kinder pancakes (£11.95), breakfast sandwiches (from £4.95), puppucinos (£2), Lotus Biscoff latte (£4.80), Mexican eggs Benedict (£10.95), Avocado on toast (£8.95), Breakfast burger (£12.95) and much more.

The Herrington site is open seven days a week and is currently walk ins only, but people will be able to book moving forward for a dedicated function space for brunches, baby showers and more.

Hours will also increase for park events, such as Kubix Festival.

The sisters are also looking forward to the first Pancake Tuesday at the new cafe, with the annual event being a major draw at the Roker site, which has near-constant queues.

The new site has created 20 new jobs for the area, with recruitment ongoing.

As well as the two cafe sites, the sisters also run a cake shop at St Luke’s Terrace, Pallion as well as a large-scale bakery in Pallion Industrial Estate, where they make all their cakes for the cafes, as well as for occasions.

:: Love Lily, Herrington Country Park is open seven days a week from 9am to 4pm, and until 5pm in the spring. Whilst dogs are not permitted in the sit-in area, they are welcome in the patio area, with a dedicated dog menu available.