Happy Out Coffee is the newest tenant to take up residence at City East, the home of East Belfast Enterprise which exists to nurture new and growing businesses and support entrepreneurs in the heart of East Belfast.
Business First Meets Vic Young of Happy Out Coffee located at East Belfast Enterprise HQ on Newtownards Road
Vic, tell us how you and Alex came up with the concept for Happy Out Coffee
Alex and I are partners in both life and business and launched Happy Out Coffee back in 2021 to embrace our mutual love of great coffee and great food, sourced locally and served up with a personal touch.
I have worked with coffee for 15 years with 10 of those years spent in St George’s Market building barista experience and Alex has worked in customer-facing roles and project management for over 20 years. Between us we figured there was the perfect crossover of skills and it was time to move from working hard for other people, to investing in ourselves… and so, Happy Out Coffee was born. We commissioned the build of a bespoke barista coffee trailer, explored local suppliers, built a menu to cater for a wide range of palates and dietary requirements and perhaps most enjoyably – explored our coffee options! We landed very easily on using local coffee roastery Bailies as our coffee bean supplier, as not only do they make incredible coffee, we also believe strongly in their ethos and their approach to ethical supply and cooperative business practices as they work directly with the coffee farmers in the various countries of origin.
Once the trailer was built and our menu finalised, off we went on our barista coffee adventure, catering at festivals, markets, parties, weddings, Pride events and private corporate events. It didn’t take long to discover there was huge demand for our little business, but not enough opportunities to actually trade, so we decided that the only way to expand was to set down our roots in something a little more permanent so that Happy Out Coffee could be available on a more regular basis.
Tell us about the journey of setting down your roots at City East
Once we decided that a café was on the cards, that’s when we brought our business partner Eamonn McGill into the mix. Eamonn is not only a friend, but also a very successful Belfast-based business owner who believed in our vision and wanted to help us in realising the expansion and helping us to drive visibility.
We started to look around for a suitable location that would offer both an indoor and outdoor space, good kitchen facilities and be accessible. The space at City East ticked the boxes and we set about putting our own stamp on it – which was a labour of love, but worth every bit of the time and effort.
What can readers of Business First expect from Happy Out Coffee?
We’re open every day from Monday to Saturday. We start serving from 7.30am in the early part of the week and we’re open most days until 6.30pm (follow us on Instagram for the variations in our opening hours).
We serve early morning staples like croissants, scones and granola pots to accompany our gourmet coffee and we’ve also added a bacon bap on the menu for folks who like a hot option to start their day with. From mid morning we’ll start to offer the lunch menu which includes sandwiches, wraps, soups and daily specials which range from slow cooked pork, to pasta bakes, stews with fresh baked focaccia and many more. We’re big fans of experimenting in the kitchen, so hopefully readers of Business First will stumble on something new that keeps them coming back to discover more!
What would you say to readers of Business Eye to encourage them to visit Happy Out Coffee?
We’re committed to being a local café, for local people, serving local produce to suit as many palates and budgets as possible. We all live in a 1 mile radius, our eggs, milk and bread are all sourced from local suppliers and our coffee beans are from local roastery Bailies. First and foremost though, our main focus has always been to create a friendly, engaging, welcoming space where folks can feel at home. Once we’re up and running fully, we plan to host evening events to become a true community space, setting us apart from the high street coffee chains. So, if you support local, then come and support us and visit Happy Out Coffee today.
