Ezra means “Helper” and Gil means “Happiness”, and together they are “an evolutionary concept in urban coffee and cafe culture”. In 2014 the founders set out to create a neighbourhood hang-out with a strong social space that cared about its food and its coffee, and opened the first café in the Northern Quarter. The café soon added cupboard essentials and desserts so that customers could take a part of Ezra & Gil home, and Ezra & Gil is now a Manchester brunch institution: coffee, provisions and brunch.

A second café opened in the city centre in 2021 and a Liverpool branch followed in 2024. The menus cover breakfast, brunch, lunch and coffee. Every site is walk-ins only, with no table reservations, and dogs are welcome. Orders for collection or to the table go through the Ezra & Gil app, payment is by cash, card or gift voucher, and allergen information is available for every menu item. The two Manchester cafés are available for private evening hire, with room for 150 in the Northern Quarter and 120 in the city centre, and a PA system for a playlist or a DJ.

Ezra & Gil does not roast. Its online shop is mostly merchandise, but it also carries a retail bag, Ezra & Gil X Mancoco, roasted with the Castlefield roaster ManCoCo as a medium dark roast for a smooth, sweet chocolate coffee. That bag is roasted by ManCoCo.

Coffee on the shelf

  • ManCoCo roasts the Ezra & Gil X Mancoco retail bag

Photograph: Ezra & Gil