A morning with Cem at the Cafe Lemon

I was down at the Cafe Lemon this morning having a chat and a coffee with co-owner Cem (pronounced Gem). I must say I was very excited by the potential of what Gem wants to do. He lives just up the road in Phillip Lane and from the get-go he and his business partner Irfan have been committed to building a real community venue that blends Turkish and English. I think they get it just right.

Aware that Harringay has no real community space for locals, Cem has all sorts of ideas about how he can make his cafe/restaurant more useful for the local resident community.

As a keen photographer, he's already set aside some of his wall space to display the work of local artists and has his first artspace hosting an exhibition of a photography by a Turkish friend. He's also included the work on his new online art shop and apparently it's been picked up in Cyprus and Turkey and the photographer has become quite well known as a result. The space is open for any local artists to sell their work. Pop in and chat to Cem if you're interested. (Aw hell, pop in and chat to Cem anyway. He's a genial host.)

There's also talk of hosting a regular pop-up bookshop in the cafe and a number of other ideas.

I'm sold. Good coffee, nice breakfast, genial host serving a clientele made up mainly of folks who live here and focussed on what they want. Sounds like Cafe Lemon is already the place we wish we had.

Oh, and I forgot, Cem will have some more news for HoL users soon. Watch this space.