Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Blend now running the Coal House Cafe at Woodberry Wetlands
I discovered today that Blend are now running the cafe at Woodberry Wetlands - from their Twitter account it seems that they started on Wednesday:
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Interesting development this - I loved the previous incumbent, but as an avid Blend regular, I'm happy to see it in such capable hands.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Pike on
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It's great as it combines two of my favourite things in the local area. The Coalhouse is already packed out on weekends anyway so the addition of Blend will surely add to the success of the cafe and draw further attention to the excellent Wetlands.
A shout out for Zer cafe on the west reservoir side if you are ever stuck for a table at the Coalhouse.
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As a separate thread it would be good see the West reservoir embankments fully linked to the Wetlands side. Would love to see a bridge over the road on the left hand side of the coal house. Suspect Thames Water would object but any chance to open up more green space would be fantastic.
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Permalink Reply by Linda Zubairi on
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Hi Michael, thanks for mentioning that! I just stumbled across your post. We were asked by the London Wildlife Trust about 3 weeks ago to help them build a community focused cafe that will help them fund the Woodberry Wetlands nature reserve. It was a very short notice decision, with only one week from the go-ahead to opening, but we couldn't say no! Those of you who've been there recently have seen that it's a work in progress, but this week we will start serving a brunch menu, with some yummy specials on for the weekends. Of course we have our amazing Climpsons coffee and our home baked treats there as well. It's a truly inspiring space and we are so proud to be involved. We've already seen a lot of our Harringay regulars there and look forward to welcome many more of you over the next months.
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Permalink Reply by AKD on
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Hi Linda, I just had to come on here and say that so far the Coal House is really disappointing. It's always been such a nice, friendly place to go but there's a stark difference between the staff there now and the staff that used to be there. In particular there is a young Man with dark shaved hair who is really REALLY rude! To everyone! Possibly the rudest person in a customer facing role that I have ever encountered. Please could you encourage your staff to be a bit more friendly? many thanks
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Dear AKD, thanks for getting in touch and I'm very sorry to hear you had a negative experience. Staff being rude is a genuine surprise to me and I would really appreciate your help in investigating the situation. Would you kindly PM me or email info@localblend.co.uk with details on what exactly happened and when this incident took place? Many thanks in advance and in any case we hope to see you there again.
Linda
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Permalink Reply by Richard Hulbert on
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Whilst I too wish Linda and all at Blend the very best and look forward to flat whites and water foul. I would say that Lizzy (the previous incumbent) felt she was treated pretty badly by the wildlife trust who terminated her lease with one months notice. She and her staff were gutted that the hard work they had put in to make the cafe a real success counted for nothing. I understood that the wildlife trust were going to take over the running of the cafe directly and use the profits to spend on the wetlands directly. I suspect that there is more to this than I know but If I were blend I wouldn't plough too much investment into the Coal House with out a decent contract.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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I thought the other cafe was really good, and run by super nice staff. Had a delicious lunch there recently, although it did take a while to come. I can't see any reason why they shouldn't have continued running it, and they offered a take away cup of tea for I think £1.50 which is great value for London.
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If they had outsourced the cafe to a third party, and assuming that the employees of that third party all had employment contracts, they should all have retained their jobs and transferred to the new 3rd party. This is part of the TUPE Regulations.
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Nope not that I can see they are all new.
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Hi there,
Since there is so much interest I thought I'd give a bit more background.
The staff are both our friends and partners helping out and staff from our other cafe on what would normally be their days off.
There is no doubt that Lizzy's was a great place and is being missed by many, and it's not an easy situation overall.
We are there as a temporary pop-up for now, to help the Trust build up their own cafe. Blend was asked to do this only when Lizzy had already left, and we were given a different brief from what Lizzy was doing as the Trust wants to integrate the cafe operations more with their other requirements for the Coal House as a visitors centre and event space. As part of this, many things aren't under our control, others are work in progress. Unfortunately, with the short notice we were not yet able to replicate in a couple of weeks all the amazing work Lizzy and her team did over the course of a whole year.
However, we do hope with our full brunch menu out (since today) and our team finding their feet you will continue to enjoy the space. We absolutely love being there, especially during this amazing early summer!
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