Kiku Liverpool: The Hi-Fi Listening Bar on Gradwell Street
Kiku Hifi opened on Gradwell Street in July 2026. Coffee by day, listening bar by night, built around vintage hi-fi and records. Hours, location and the story.
By Amy L · 19 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
If you have seen Kiku mentioned alongside Liverpool record shops and wondered whether it is somewhere you can buy vinyl, the short answer is no. It is a coffee shop and a listening bar. The records are there to be played, not sold.
Kiku Hifi opened on Gradwell Street on 13 July 2026. It runs as a coffee shop through the day and a bar in the evening, built around vintage hi-fi equipment and a programme of resident DJs. The owner is Mike Girling, who is also behind Suono on Bold Street and L'Aperitivo above it.
This guide covers what Kiku is, where it is, when it opens, and where the idea comes from. Opening hours and DJ nights are the fastest-moving details, so check before you make a special trip.
The short version
Where: 40 Gradwell Street, Liverpool, L1 4JH, off Duke Street in the Ropewalks.
Opened: 13 July 2026.
Hours at launch: 9am to 11pm Sunday to Thursday, 9am to midnight Friday and Saturday.
Owner: Mike Girling, also behind Suono and L'Aperitivo on Bold Street.
Does it sell records? No. There is no record shop here.
Day and night: coffee and pastries in the morning, cocktails, wine and beer later.
What Kiku Hifi is
Kiku is a coffee shop by day and a listening bar by night. The distinction that matters is the second half: a listening bar builds the room around the sound system rather than treating music as background.
The mix is speciality coffee and pastries in the daytime, then cocktails, wine and beer in the evening, with vintage hi-fi and a resident DJ programme running through both. Skiddle's opening report describes it as an analogue experience built on handcrafted coffee and premium sound.
The pastries and coffee roast come from Little Moments, an independent women-owned Liverpool business.
You do not need to know anything about amplifiers or cartridges to go in. The point is that somebody has thought harder about the sound than picking a playlist.
The deck sits on the bar itself, not tucked away in a booth.
Where Kiku is and how to get there
Kiku is at 40 Gradwell Street, L1 4JH. Gradwell Street is a short side street off Duke Street, in the block between Bold Street and Liverpool ONE.
Nearest station: Liverpool Central, about six minutes on foot.
On foot: five minutes from the bottom of Bold Street, three from Duke Street.
Parking: Q-Park Liverpool ONE and the Duke Street car parks are closest. Gradwell Street itself is narrow with double yellows.
It is a small street and easy to walk past, so search for Kiku Hifi in your mapping app rather than hunting for the number.
Opening times
These were the hours published when Kiku opened in July 2026.
Kiku Hifi published opening hours at launch, July 2026
Day
Hours
Sunday to Thursday
9am to 11pm
Friday and Saturday
9am to midnight
Treat these as launch hours rather than settled ones. Independent venues change hours, DJ nights and private bookings regularly in the first few months. Kiku Hifi on Instagram is the place to check.
Does Kiku sell records?
No. We have found no evidence that Kiku operates as a record shop or sells vinyl as retail. The records are played, not sold.
That puts it in a different category from Liverpool's actual record shops. If buying is what you are after:
Dig Vinyl, in the basement of the clothing shop on Bold Street
The Musical Box on West Derby Road, trading since 1947
If Kiku later starts selling records or running fairs, that changes. For now, go for the listening.
The Suono connection
Kiku did not appear from nowhere. Owner Mike Girling already runs Suono, the listening bar beneath L'Aperitivo at 112 Bold Street, which opened in 2025 and was itself built around Japanese listening-bar ideas.
Girling has described the difference between the two directly. Suono is built around the listening bar idea but is closer to a club version, and with Kiku he wanted to lean into the history of jazz kissa, as he told the Liverpool Echo at the opening.
The practical difference for you is the daytime. Suono is an evening room. Kiku lets you sit with the same idea over a coffee at half past ten in the morning.
Where the idea comes from
Kiku takes its cue from two Japanese formats. A kissaten is a traditional Japanese coffee shop, a format the Japan National Tourism Organization traces to the early twentieth century.
A jazz kissa pushed that towards music. In decades when imported records and good audio equipment were expensive, these cafes were where you went to hear music played properly on kit you could not afford at home. The Smithsonian's account of Japanese jazz cafes covers how they became places to hear records that were otherwise hard to get near.
Kiku is a Liverpool reading of that, not a reproduction of it.
There is an obvious irony in the format arriving here in 2026. Access to recorded music is no longer the scarce thing. Attention is. A listening room takes something you can do anywhere on your phone and gives you a reason to sit still and do it properly.
The DJ programme
At launch, DJ Pooky from Bonsai Hi Fi Sound System was announced for Friday nights, and DJ PJ Smith for Sunday mornings into the early afternoon.
Residencies move, so check Instagram before going specifically for a set. The wider point is that a listening bar gives a DJ room to play records that would make no sense in a Liverpool club, with no need to build to a peak every few minutes.
How it fits into the Ropewalks
Liverpool does not need another bar because another unit came free. Kiku is worth noting because it sits in a gap between the city's coffee shops, bars, record shops and music venues.
The independent record culture here is already strong. Bold Street has Dig Vinyl, Suffolk Street has Dead Air, West Derby Road has The Musical Box. What Kiku is selling is not the records themselves but the experience of hearing them on equipment chosen for the job.
Whether it builds a following around the music or settles into being another well-liked cafe and bar will be clearer once the opening novelty passes. For now it is one of the more distinctive independent openings the city centre has had this year.
Confirm the hours on Instagram, especially for a Sunday morning or a late Friday, because launch hours are the thing most likely to have shifted. If you are going for a specific DJ, check the residency is still running.
