WHITCHURCH has been given a taste of German culture with the opening of a new cafe.

Eleven, which occupies the site of the former Caru Coffi in Green End has been opened by Levin and Elizabeth Joos and offers a European take on the traditional British cafe.

For Levin, originally from near Stuttgart, it is his first time running a cafe in the UK, having previously managed similar establishments back home.

Levin says he always wanted to do a cafe with a twist, and settled on Whitchurch after being put off by larger locations.

"My Mum lives in Bickley Moss and told me about this cafe," said Levin. "I've always wanted to do a cafe that's a bit different.

"We both wanted something not too big. We wanted to go to Chester, but it was more expensive and the people there only come in once.

"We wanted customers to know who we were and we wanted to know them."

The cafe takes its name from a portmanteau of both Levin and Elizabeth's names.

"I'm not that creative so Elizabeth came up with the name," added Levin. "She said Eleven straight away, I said 'yep, well lets do that, that sounds good'."

One of the unique aspects of Eleven is the miniature ice cream that comes with every coffee, which Leven explains is something unique to Eleven.

"We've got the little ice creams, thought that would be nice to do," he added. "The coffee here is quite strong, so we wanted something sweet to counter that."

Another challenge for Levin and Elizabeth was getting to grips with the English way of doing things.

"Germans and English are very different, especially about food," Levin added. "In Germany if you just gave someone a bacon sandwich, they would ask where the rest of the meal was.

"And the full English too. Everyone has their own way of how it should be."

Levin says getting regular customers is a big aim for him and so far the future looks positive.

"We've had a few posts on Facebook and a lot of people coming in," he added. "We have regulars coming in as well.

"It's been good so far."