I decided to wait until Liverpool One was complete before paying a visit, and I have to say I was quite impressed with the overall effect when I visited for the first time on Saturday.
Okay, it was something of a challenge to battle with the stiff wind blowing in off the Mersey, and some of the 'streets' have a rather foreboding trench-like feel, but generally these are minor criticisms and the hoards of shoppers proved that it is going to be a big hit.
(When I first saw the plans I thought that it was "brave" of the architect to opt for that enclosed circle design for Chavasse Park. I always thought it risked creating a vortex effect with any breeze and the force 4 on Saturday proved me right - it was like standing in a wind-tunnel at times).
Church Street and Lord Street were heaving with shoppers too, so the idea of making Liverpool One a natural extension of the city centre rather than another precinct also looks like paying-off. God knows what it's going to be like at Christmas... certainly there is little sign of the Credit Crunch on "Main Street" in Liverpool.
We tried in vain to get into one of the restaurants on the upper level. They were all packed out (this at 3.30pm in the afternoon).
So having got our mouths ready for a nice bowl of mussels at Cafe Rouge we decided to give up on Liverpool One and headed for The Met Quarter instead.
Our hunch was right and we got a table with ease there. The waitress warned that the chef was running on a 40 minute delay for meals, but we ignored that and took our seats.
Indeed the 40-minute wait warning proved to be a fallacy. The service was no slower than normal. This was the second time in a week, at different restaurants, that we have experienced false "there will be a wait" warnings.
Why do they try to put people off like that? It's like they don't want the extra work. Surely a full restaurant is what they should aim for, isn't it?
Anyway the mussels were excellent.
But I did detect that the Met Quarter was far from busy and few purchases were being made.
This may be because everyone was over at Liverpool One or it could be the line where the "discretionary purchase" element of the Credit Crunch is making its impact.
The majority it seems are hunting for bargains and forgetting about the designer names with the big price tags.
Closure of the CUC in Liverpool - sad day
(Tue 03/01)
Banksy the religious bigot
(Thu 29/12)
The Big Yin is on his way... I can't wait
(Thu 10/11)
A tale of two museums
(Tue 30/08)
Rosie Cooper - we need more politicians like her
(Mon 06/06)
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