Walnut Cafe has closed down

fabruce

I read the sign while walking from the station.

What a shame, I thought it was doing better now as it offered more options.

Or maybe the area is just struggling.

gardener-joe

[ ... ]

fabruce

http://www.stroudgreen.org/discussion/6521/exeter-street-bakery-shut-down-new-restaurant-walnut/p1

joust

Thats a real shame. I liked going there for a bit of food and a couple of drinks.

It had seemed fairly busy recently, too.

Ali

First of many I expect. There will be a shake out. Interest rate I creases and Brexit

HolbornFox

Haha, let's take this slowly.

Did Walnut close due to the Brexit vote?

Ali

.

HolbornFox

Wow I'll serve them up and you can bat them out of the park.

No need for me to explain anything, I've never been an advocate of brexit.

Did you also not say that there were more than 100'000 people at a march but you don't know how to count such things?

Anyway Walnut would have shut due to the fact that 70% of all new business does not survive.

mountpelephant

Traiteur has also closed. Only now offering private catering. No longer a restaurant.

Scruffy

I sent Traiteur an email last year, asking about allergens in their menu. They didn’t even have the courtesy to reply! Hardly inspired confidence in the management.

Brodiej

Anywhere closing is sad news. Hats off to anyone that takes the plunge.

I would ask the forum if I have an old fashioned view on something though. Is it acceptable to crowd fund a Restaurant? I remember when this place first launched and the pitch was for all the kitchen equipment. Many thousands. I don’t understand why people don’t take the risk themselves? It feels like a piss take to me. The place in Crouch End “Here” did exactly the same. If you haven’t got the money, wait till you have. Don’t expect everyone else to fund your dream.

Scruffy

I don’t see why anyone shouldn’t try it if other people like the idea and are inspired to put money up. Nonetheless, Brodiej, just stopping short of seeing it as a piss-take, I would be very skeptical and extremely unlikely to make a contribution myself. So, acceptable, yes, in my view. Live and let live—but don’t be a sucker!

joust

I remember there being "rewards" for each donation though. So if you put in £xxx then you got a meal for 4 or whatever.

It seems more like a good way to get an advance on the money to help you set up without owing the bank.

HolbornFox

I seem to remember reading that the people who invested in Brewdog did not get any returns or got shorted somehow when they sold out to an equity firm.

I never understand the 'invest £100 get a free meal' theory, just go in there and buy the meal?

I started my business without any shoes to even put the string in which taught me more about lean enterprise then the MBA brigade seem to grasp.

joust

I guess it's because then the customer gets a sense of choice in what sort of place opens up. And it creates a bit of a buzz with like minded people with a bit of cash to spare from the area. A good example is the thread we had in here.

Your last sentence sounds like the Monty python Yorkshire men sketch
"Ooh string. I used to dream of having a bit of string..." Etc

HolbornFox

Do not ever say I'm from above Watford ever again.

miss annie

I draw the line at anywhere north of Brent Cross.

joust

As a proud north Yorkshireman living in London, with a baby on the way, I'm worried about the accent it will have

HolbornFox

Well it won't be cockney in Strouders.

joust

As far as I'm concerned cockney is a place south of Nottingham

Scruffy

Cockney? We would've dreamed of speaking cockney! There were sixteen of us all huddled together 'round t' wireless, while Father tried to tune in to the English service of Radio Tirana on longwave so we could learns us to speak posh. Every time the Albanian economy took a dive (every Tuesday), their broadcast signal strength was reduced. Eventually it were just Morse code, but it were good enough for us. I remember us all singing 'appy birthday to Mother.. 'ow did it go now...? "Dit-dit-dit-dit dit-dah dit-dah-dah-dit..."

miss annie

Norman Wisdom was big in Albania wasn't he?

joust

HolbornFox

If you didn't sell homing pigeons in Petticoat Lane and then sell them again the following week you definitely ain't a cockney.

Papa

The Whittington is where Dick is meant to have heard the Bow Bells and turned back, meaning presumably that if you were born there you could claim that you meet the within sound of the Bow Bells cockney definition.

Mind you, I guess it was quieter in those days and sound travelled further.

CityOfSin

Sad to see Walnut closed - that is a tough location, especially with all the W3 buses they had parked in front of their windows for a few weeks.

Maybe the issue with both Walnut and Traiteur was that the food was good but the prices were too high for most locals to make it a regular thing. Not everyone can afford / wants to drop £40+ per head on a midweek meal - especially when you have more affordable options like Pasta Remoli, Petek, Pappagone etc.

I wonder if Walnut might have worked in Crouch End? Or even further up SGR without the dark windows. I imagine a lot of people walked past without knowing it was there.

therattle

Yes, I thought the dark windows were a terrible mistake. I only ate there once (a salt beef sandwich) and wasn't terribly impressed. The salt beef from Vittorio's was much better, and cheaper. It's a shame when business go bust though - it's someone's dream disappearing.

TheMimsy

@TheRattle Agree.
I am sorry they have gone but went once for lunch and wasn't wowed. On the whole, I preferred Exeter Bakery.

Arkady

They really need to get rid of the dark windows to make that place work.

slats

Has the Black Hamburg closed too?

tosscat

Yes, in its current incarnation.