Beer for Good CIC, the UK’s first social enterprise bar group, has joined forces with Edinburgh Leisure’s Craiglockhart Tennis Centre to open a new café, Harry’s Courtyard Café. This is Beer For Good’s second venture with Edinburgh Leisure, having opened Harry’s Café at Drumbrae in October 2016.

Kirsty Stobie, Manager at Craiglockhart Tennis Centre said: “With very few other places in the area where people can go to meet for a coffee and a snack, we hope the new Harry’s Courtyard Café will become a hub of the community, a place where people can go to meet, enjoy some healthy refreshments, after enjoying the tennis, squash, gym and fitness facilities at Craiglockhart. And as the weather gets warmer hopefully, the Courtyard garden will also be in use, providing a new experience for Craiglockhart members and the community.

“The food is fresh and has a focus on health and well-being, specialising in soups, sandwiches, salads, baked goods and great teas and coffees.”

The food is provided by Beer for Good CIC’s central kitchen, which is used to give vocational training to young adults and to community initiatives, who are looking to give people an opportunity to get into the workplace. Staff at the café will be entered into a training programme with access to certified courses spanning both hospitality and non-hospitality specific professional skills.

Beer for Good also use other Social Enterprise companies such as Downs Syndrome Scotland, School of Hard Knocks and the Jet Programme, as well as ethical and sustainable products wherever they can, to work within the framework of their ethos.

They use Freedom Bakery Bread, a social enterprise bread company who help to rehabilitate ex-offenders; Karma Cola Range, who donate their profits back to the Sierra Leone farming community; and all materials including straws and Harry’s coffee cups are made for them by Vegware and are fully compostable reducing their effect on the environment.

Chris Thewlis, Director of Beer for Good: “Beer for Good is excited to continue our relationship with Edinburgh Leisure with the new opening of Harry’s Courtyard Cafe at Craiglockhart. This venture will hopefully offer not only a great new offering for Craiglockhart Leisure Centre but will also help us to provide more exciting opportunities for people from the local community to benefit from our social aims and objectives.”