A NEW all-day brunch café has opened its doors in York city centre.

Rise has opened in the former Rise and Shine living store at 44, Fossgate and owner Jack Swire said the response from customers has been fantastic already.

“Our opening weekend was just overwhelming. It was way busier than we anticipated but everyone was so lovely and it really gave us a great welcome to York.” said Jack.

“The team were brilliant and I really can’t emphasise what a great dining culture York seems to have.”

The venture first began in Preston in October 2019, with TripAdvisor now rating it as one of the best cafe/restaurants in the city.

It was founded by Jack and Leigh Norton who between them have 35 years of experience in hospitality, including several years working together. in York they’re employing a team of 14 in Fossgate.

Jack said: “So our ethos isn’t crazy, we’re there for great food, coffee and service with good vibes all round.

“We just work how any restaurant should its just something we’ve felt is a missing courtesy in most restaurants these days.

“That’s why we opened rise. We want everyone to come in and leave with a good memory.

“Our menus are all day brunch with a couple of lunch options dropped in there. We’ve got eggs Benedict, poached eggs and avocado but we also have our own twists on some awesome brunch classics like French toast and our Turkish eggs.

“We also offer smoothies and smoothie bowls as a huge part of Rise was inspired by myself and Leigh travelling to different parts of the world with huge brunch and cafe cultures and wanting to bring a little slice of that back home.

“We work with an incredibly talented designer, Rose Peploe. She helped bring our first Rise to life in Preston and we had to get her to help us with our second in York.

“We give her a lot of freedom for the design and really trust what she manages to devise for us. It took a fair bit of convincing for us to run with a bright pink sofa and ever the amazing blue frontage but we knew she would create something awesome so after taking our first brief and telling her what our vision was she smashed it.”

Jack said that before they decided to come to York they looked at Manchester and Liverpool and a few areas outside and then Leigh went to York for a long weekend with his partner and they walked past the new site on Fossgate and he loved it.

“He loved the city, the people and the general vibe so he insisted I came and had a look around and I knew what he meant. It’s somewhere we felt the vibe we offer would just fit in and the locals and even visitors would be super like minded to what we were offering.”

Rise is open 8am-5pm Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm Saturday and Sunday with the kitchen closing at 4pm.