Owning a cafe may not sound incredibly exciting, but Anthony Grice has had some amazing experiences that have overlapped with his Liverpool-supporting life.

From receiving Virgil van Dijk‘s help during the coronavirus pandemic, growing up next to Robbie Fowler and playing against Steven Gerrard at school, Grice has his fair share of stories to tell.

As owner of well-known Liverpool cafe,Coffeewe caught up with Anthony (Tony) Grice for the latest edition of My Liverpool Life and learned how we can help his business.

I started supporting Liverpool because…

My earliest memory of supporting Liverpool was the 1984 European Cup final.

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All the family was around the TV watching Liverpool. I was only four years old and it’s quite hard to remember details as it was so far back now. I do remember the family partying into the night and singing Liverpool songs.

I’d say my first proper memory was the 1986 all-Merseyside FA Cup final, the whole city being decked out in red and blue. The build-up was absolutely massive and the city was buzzing.

I loved Gary Lineker when he played for Everton and to this day, I honestly think if Everton had won then I may have swayed towards them even though I probably wouldn’t have been allowed!

Thank God we won that day and I do remember celebrating Liverpool winning the cup. From then on I never looked back from the age of six.

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My first match was…

Alan Hansen‘s testimonial against an England XI.

I can remember my uncles taking me because I’d been asking them for ages. I used to pass the stadium on the 27 bus and was amazed every time I seen the ground.

To this day I can still remember walking up the steps at Flagpole Corner into the Kop and my uncle said to me, ‘You’ll never forget this. There she is’.

It was like time stood still and the noise went quiet for a moment. The brightest green grass I’d ever seen lit up by the stadium floodlights and I just looked on in amazement. The volume kind of swished back in and a roar of the fans snapped me out of the moment and I was just taken in right then.

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We won the game 3-2 and to see all my heroes for the first time was one of the best moments of my life, and that memory will live with me forever

My favourite season supporting Liverpool has been…

This is a tough one. I loved the 2014 season in which we just lost the league.

I don’t think anyone gives us a praise for even being in a title race that season. We came from nowhere and the belief in the fans was that we could actually do this. I went to the domestic aways that season and every one of them was like traveling away for a cup final.

Yet it probably has to be the 2019 final. Klopp’s team was at its finest; the football we played that season was magical.

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The European away campaign that season was probably the best I’ve ever done. Yes, I believed we would beat Barcelona at Anfield when walking out of the Nou Camp after watching us lose 3-0 when we had outplayed them all game.

If I could relive one match, it would be…

Istanbul – there’s no question about it.

I traveled to Turkiye on my own because I didn’t trust anyone with travel arrangements.

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The whole day from starting in Taksim Square to the journey onto the stadium, onto Pete Wylie singing Heart as Big as Liverpool as the sun was setting and thousands of Reds with flags in the air about to march into our sixth European cup final, was magical.

Tears at half time, tears at full time and if I could ever relive one day again in my life, then that would be it.

How has running your cafe, Fika, impacted your Liverpool-supporting life?

Before I had the cafe I ran a chauffeur company.

It was perfect because I also worked for LFC taking players, families, reserves and backroom staff around. I used to drive players’ families to the games home and away which allowed me to go the match and get paid at the same time.

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Since opening CoffeeI still go to every home game but really struggle to get to many of the domestic aways. European Cup aways, I also took a step back from these, but I do try to make at least three to five per season.

Football is a massive part of my life and something I’m very passionate about. I don’t care about other teams and I’m not knowledgeable about anyone else or who they’re playing.

I couldn’t even tell you four England players even though I’ve seen them all live. It’s just Liverpool FC.

Fika is going through a tough time – how can we help?

Things have been a little tough at the shop lately. Numbers have dropped visiting along with rising costs of stock, utilities, rent etc.

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We feel that the end is in sight before the year is out. We need as much support from everyone to visit us as we can.

We need Virgil van Dijk to turn up with his teammates for coffee in hope that the crowds will follow in.

If you could invite three Liverpool figures from past or present to Fika for a coffee, who would they be?

1. Virgil – that’s the easiest one.

He’s gone down in my opinion as the best captain we’ve ever had and that takes a lot for me to put him above Hansen.

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During lockdown, the LFC Foundation contacted me because I was feeding vulnerable people around Liverpool and they’d seen what I’d been doing.

They said a current first team player wants to support your campaign. Not only will this support the public it helped me survive in COVID as a business.

The player wanted to remain anonymous and donated £2000 to help us feed everyone.

At the end of our campaign, the foundation informed me it was VVD who backed us. I will never forget what he did.

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Along with this I know many charities he supports without any recognition wanted. Just a humble man, a true leader and a great human.

2. Steven Gerrard

My hero. I played football against him when I was in school – Nugent vs. Cardinal Heenan.

Our captain played for Everton youth at the time (Carl Regan). He told us on the bus going to the game that these have a player for them called Gerrard and if he’s playing then it’s game over for us.

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If our best player, who was incredible by the way, said this about someone else then our heads went and we had already lost.

Gerrard started the game and by half time they were 5-0 up and Gerrard had scored all five goals!

The second half, their manager put Gerrard in goal to even the game out. I remember him coming on the pitch on his debut and it all come back to me, ‘That’s him, that’s the kid who scored five past us’.

The best ever for us in my opinion.

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3. Robbie Fowler – my old next door neighbour

We used to play on the astro pitch facing my house every night for hours. We all knew he was special.

He was a massive blue and I can still see him hitting the ball in the goal saying ‘Sheedy’ goal.

Top, top lad and he gave everything for us. I was so happy to see him pitch side and have a chat with him the day we lifted the Premier League last season, and he managed to take a quick selfie of us.

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It would be great to talk through all the times growing up in Toxteth and being a Liverpool player.

How you can help Fika

Fika Coffee is than a coffee shop, it’s a valuable part of the Wavertree community, providing a space to discuss mental health and meet with others:

“The ethos of our shop is to bring people together and support those less fortunate, in need, lonely or vulnerable. We achieve this by offering free meals, free coffee for those in need.

“Through our Easter and Christmas appeals, feeding the homeless in Liverpool city centre, running mens mental health walk and talk sessions, hosting free community events including our recent Halloween scavenger hunt as well as feeding over 3000 people during the Covid pandemic.”

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If you’re in Liverpool, you can visitCoffeeon Woolton Road, Wavertree

If you’re not local, you can help by donating to the Fika GoFundMe, here.