A FAMILY-run business has opened a second café in York as it looks to expand to beyond the city walls.

Following the success of the Lucky Days delicatessen in Church Street, which has served around 300 people every day since it opened in August 2012, owner Chris Holder and his father and business partner Nigel, have decided to open more cafés and turn the brand into a local chain.

Mr Holder said: "It was always our plan to expand the brand and we are now at our full capacity in our first shop."

The new café in Parliament Street spreads across four floors and has a seating capacity of 110 including outdoor tables. In the shop windows, salads are presented on wooden planks, watering cans and in plant pots to match the chain’s ethos of fresh and homemade food.

Mr Holder said: "We are very excited about the outdoor seating and getting a presence at the heart of York, on its beautiful square. A salad and a nice glass of Chardonnay seems perfect to me if the weather is nice.”

However the new café will not replicate the form of payment, unique to the shop in Church Street, where if you roll a six on a dice you can get your food for just £1.

"We found that 80 per cent of our customers got to the till without knowing they could roll a dice, instead they had been drawn in by the food in the window. Some customers felt embarrassed about throwing the dice because they loved and valued what we offered,” explained Mr Holder.

"People are more health conscious and want to be able to sit down and enjoy fresh homemade food in a relaxed atmosphere and we work very hard to offer just that."

The owners of the family business now have bigger plans and are already looking at venues in Petergate to open a third café in York, with the next step set to be shops in Harrogate and Leeds, where Mr Holder hopes to set up within a year.