Cyndi Himmelstiere on the caff that refuses to charge Shoreditch prices
There is a cafe not far from where I am typing this that still sells a full cooked breakfast for a price that, when I tell people what it actually is, produces a small, genuine gasp, the kind usually reserved for hearing an old friend has done something mildly scandalous.
It is not fashionable. There is no exposed brick, mostly because the walls are covered in laminated menus that have not changed, as far as I can tell, in a genuinely long time. And it may, according to a conversation I had with the owner, not survive much longer, which felt worth actually writing about before it becomes another entry on the list of things this area used to have.
The Maths of a Two Pound Fifty Cup of Tea
The owner, who has run the cafe for over two decades, walked me through the actual economics with a candour I genuinely appreciated, explaining that the traditional caff pricing model, built on high volume, low margin, fast turnover breakfasts and lunches, was designed for an era when the surrounding rent, and the surrounding customer base’s disposable income, both looked considerably different than they do now.
“I could double my prices tomorrow and probably still have customers,” he told me, flipping something on the grill with the specific economy of motion that comes from doing the exact same task several thousand times. “But then I’m not really this place anymore, am I? I’m just another cafe with slightly worse coffee than the place two doors down.”
Who Actually Eats Here
The customer base, on the morning I visited, was genuinely mixed in a way that felt increasingly rare for the immediate area, construction workers on an early break, an elderly couple who the owner greeted by name without needing to ask their order, a couple of younger office workers who I suspect were there specifically because they had heard about the prices from a colleague and wanted to see for themselves.
“This is one of the only places left round here where everyone actually eats together,” one long time regular told me, a builder working on a nearby renovation. “Everywhere else, it’s either dead expensive or it’s clearly not really for people like me. This is still for everyone. That matters more than people realise until it’s gone.”
The Rent Conversation
The owner was candid that his landlord has, in recent lease negotiations, made clear that the rent will need to increase substantially at the next renewal, a figure he says is simply incompatible with maintaining current pricing without either raising prices dramatically or accepting a genuinely unsustainable margin.
“I’ve done the sums every way I can think of,” he said. “There isn’t a version where I keep prices where they are and pay the rent he’s talking about. Something has to give, and I genuinely don’t know yet which one it’s going to be.”
What Local Business Groups Say
Small business advocacy organisations covering the area have periodically raised concerns about exactly this pattern, longstanding, affordable independent businesses facing rent increases that reflect the area’s broader commercial desirability rather than any change in that specific business’s own turnover or profitability, a dynamic that can push out precisely the kind of affordable, community anchoring businesses that give a neighbourhood genuine economic diversity.
“This is a story we hear constantly across London, not just here,” said one small business advocate, discussing the broader pattern rather than this specific cafe. “A business isn’t failing on its own terms. It’s being priced out by a rental market that has essentially decoupled from what that specific business model can sustainably support, regardless of how loyal its actual customer base remains.”
The Loyalty That Cannot Pay The Rent
What struck me, spending a morning at the cafe, was the genuine depth of loyalty among regulars, several of whom told me, entirely unprompted, that they would happily pay somewhat more to keep the place open, a sentiment the owner appreciates but views with a certain weary realism.
“People say that,” he said. “And I believe they mean it. But ‘a bit more’ and what the actual rent increase requires are not the same number. I’d need to roughly double prices to make the new rent work, and at that point, I’m genuinely not sure how many of these exact customers can still afford to eat here regularly. That’s the actual bind.”
What Happens If It Closes
Should the cafe ultimately close, the owner said he has had informal interest from at least two parties about the space, both of whom, based on his description of the conversations, envision something considerably more aligned with the area’s current commercial character, meaning a genuinely affordable, mixed community gathering spot would very likely become something else entirely, something with, in all probability, exposed brick and a considerably higher price for a cup of tea.
“I don’t blame anyone for wanting to make the space work financially,” he said. “I just think something real gets lost when every single option ends up looking the same, priced for the same customer, serving the same slightly performative version of what this area is supposed to be now.”
What I Hope Happens
I do not have a tidy solution here, beyond genuinely hoping that whatever negotiation happens next between this specific owner and this specific landlord finds some outcome that keeps at least one genuinely affordable, genuinely mixed gathering place standing on a street that increasingly seems to have room for very little else. I will keep eating here for as long as it exists. I would encourage you to do the same, while you still can.
Further Reading
More of my reporting on Shoreditch’s changing character can be found at my author page at The London Prat, with additional coverage at Bohiney Magazine. Related material is collected at NewsThump.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
