Just months after getting the keys for the property, Molly Shanahan and her partner Alex Clohessy are at last opening their brand new café, Forrest Coffee House.

Located at 1 The Square, Forrest Coffee House has been taking shape before our eyes over the past few months, as Molly and Alex have completely reshaped the old mortgage advisors.

Having originally planned to open to the public fully on Thursday, November 5, the pair have pushed that back to today (November 7) and will be serving takeaway only in light of the current lockdown.

The two had always discussed the idea of opening a shop or cafe together, "if we went on holiday it would always be what we talked about over dinner," says Molly "but that type of thing was just a pipe dream."

Now, their dream is a reality.

Forrest enjoyed a test run last weekend when Molly and Alex were able to invite family and friends down to see all the changes that they had made.

"We did a soft opening for a small group of family and friends throughout the day on Saturday, which ended in a makeshift cake sale at the door of Forrest. Then after Boris' announcement on Saturday evening we decided then and there to do a pop up on Sunday."

Given the sudden nature of the decision, they were up baking all night, and their new chef Amy came in at 6am to help get things ready.

"We sold out of cakes, coffee and almost everything in between, but everyone was so kind and patient with us and it was such a lovely, friendly day in the middle of such an uncertain time."

Having had to do so much work getting Forrest in shape, putting in flooring, plumbing, electrics, and knocking down walls, before they could even start decorating, Molly and Alex would have been forgiven for losing enthusiasm over the past few months.

This has not been the case.

"The last few weeks have been great, really exciting seeing our vision for Forrest come to life, and watching the space take shape.

"It feels exciting to finally be opening but also very surreal! This is not at all the opening that we expected, and as Forrest has been in the works for over a year now the world has changed extraordinarily in that time."

Forrest Coffee House, is designed to be more than just a café though. It will also be a retail space for local businesses to use to sell their products.

Forrest is also hoping to be a social space, and a space available for local groups, and businesses to use as and when that is possible again.

"The pandemic has been really tough for so many small businesses here in Kenilworth but its lovely to see such a huge effort in Kenilworth for people to shop local and support small businesses.

"There is a wonderful community of small businesses here in Kenilworth and the surrounding towns that all support each other and that has helped us tremendously."

Being part of the community is really important to what Molly and Alex are trying to achieve, as well as being a space for local dog walkers to come in whilst they are out an about in the town.

"If last weekend is anything to go by then hopefully our customers will be understanding of the situation we're in if everything isn't perfect straight away.

"We're so excited to meet even more of them, especially the dogs, this town has the cutest dogs in the world!"

If you would like to learn more about the journey of Forrest Coffee House, please read our in-depth interview with Alex and Molly from earlier in the year.