A NEW cafe has opened in Westhoughton.

Millenzo’s on Market Street is a family-owned cafe run by Westhoughton locals Darren Mills, his wife Paula and son Hensley, also known as Enzo.

Darren, 46, says opening a cafe has been a dream of his since 2011.

Born in Cleveleys on the Fylde Coast of Lancashire, Darren moved to Westhoughton with his wife Paula, 36, in 1990 where they raised their four sons.

Although the Mills are hoping to open additional branches in Chorley and the Trafford Centre in the years to come, starting in Westhoughton was a no-brainer for Darren.

He said: “Because I know the area well, I thought the first one needs to be in my local area.”

Millenzo’s will serve a specially selected three bean blend of coffee alongside scrambled eggs, bagels and paninis.

Having spent the last 12 months on research for the menu, Darren said: “We’re going on the healthy side.”

But it was his 22-year-old son Hensley who pitched in with the idea of serving waffles as part of a range of tasty desserts.

Last week, the family offered their Facebook followers a sneak preview of their waffles and asked the public for suggestions.

The family are also hoping to serve bottled beers, red and white wine and a number of spirits at night, pending approval for an alcohol license.

So far, 14 Westhoughton residents have been recruited and trained to work at the cafe and Darren promises local business will benefit too.

Millenzo’s will be offering a 10% discount to local business owners by the end of July and all suppliers will be local too, according to Darren.

He said: “We’re not going to the Asdas of the world, even though it’s been more expensive for us. That’s just how we wanted to do it.”

Despite the added cost, Darren says that his cafe will still be affordable, especially compared to other businesses in the area.

The family previously had their eyes on another site in the area but were beaten to it by another coffee chain.

He said: “We wanted the old police station, but Costa Coffee beat us to it.”

Costa’s plans fell through and a Card Factory took the spot instead, leaving the Mills family to open their new cafe on the former site of estate agents True Shone and Kerr.

Work began on the premises in December 2017 in the hope that the cafe would be open in time for Easter, but the scale of the refurbishment delayed the opening date to July.

Darren said: “We just wanted to take our time. It’s been done to a very high spec”

With the refurb complete, Darren described the new cafe as, ‘high spec, really trendy and open’.

The cafe will be open on Mondays to Saturdays from 7:30am until 10pm, and from 10am to 9pm on Sundays.