cafes – Wansteadium

Room service arrives in Wanstead

The Wanstead Village Directory April edition is out with the shock news that Belgique – the fancy cafe on Cambridge Park – is now offering breakfast delivered to your door on Saturdays or Sundays.

Prices aren’t too bad either. There’s a minimum spend of Â£7.50, and you can order either a la carte, or from set menus, which range from Â£9.95 to Â£99. The latter includes the Sunday Times and a dozen red roses. It’s not clear from the website (or the small print) how much the charge for delivery is, but apart from that, the only downside is that it’s only available until 11am.

Wanstead’s Olive Branch ‘for sale’

It’s mysterious, but it seems that the Olive Branch, one of Wanstead’s popular coffee shops, is up for sale. An advert posted at Christie & Co describes the cafe as offering a “prime location in an affluent area”, with “good day and night footfall”, a “covered pavement area with seats”, and with “scope to improve trade”. The quoted price for the lease is Â£95,000, though it’s not stated how long this has to run.

There would be plenty of people in Wanstead who would be sorry to see the end of the Olive Branch, if that’s what this advert portends. It’s especially appreciated for being roomy and capable of accommodating families. But competition has seriously increased in the past year with Wanstead’s new Starbucks being rarely less than buzzing.

Any more information welcome at wansteadium[at]googlemail.com or via comments below.