CAFE culture is slowly beginning to take off in Bolton with the announcement that a new coffee house is coming to town.

Bosses at Caff Nero are set to open the borough's latest coffee shop on Deansgate at the end of the month.

It will follow on from the success of Costa Coffee, which is based in the Abbey bank on Deansgate. Food and drink outlets have boomed in Bolton in recent years as coffee sales rise and the trend shifts ever increasingly towards eating out.

Analysts say town centres are becoming places where people not only shop but visit to relax. Caff Nero, whose nearest coffee bars are in Manchester and at the Trafford Centre, are currently recruiting people to work as assistant managers and baristas at the new Bolton shop.

The firm, which has 130 shops nationwide, has been rated as the best UK coffee house for the third year running in the Allegra Report, the UK's definitive guide for the coffee industry.

It was founded in 1997 and is currently the largest independent coffee retailer in the UK. American giant Starbucks has yet to come to Bolton - it currently has a coffee shop in Middlebrook.

Manchester is as well known for its cafe society as for its boozy nights out and Bolton could also become a continental-style coffee haven.

A spokesman for Caff Nero said: "Our aim is to provide a continental style coffee house experience and we're pleased to be offering that to Bolton which is one of the major towns in Britain and a splendid shopping town."