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East End traders are calling on the public to make their Christmas shopping experience more authentic with a special weekend celebrating independent businesses. Some of the area’s most colourful characters are taking part in East End Indie Weekend on December 1st, 2nd and 3rd. “Our high streets and markets are bursting with creative talent and unique products. They offer a very fresh alternative to bigger chains selling mass-produced items." Jenna Fansa of the Local Buyers Cl

Dust off your Christmas jumper and prepare for a fun night out on Church Street! Local businesses are preparing for a festive late-night shopping event on Thursday December 14th and there’ll be mulled wine and fizz aplenty! The event, which is being coordinated by Andi’s Restaurant and the Local Buyers Club, will feature Hackney Song Works Choir, the chance to hop aboard a fire engine and chat to your local firefighters, a Santa’s grotto, treasure hunt and live music. "...wha

A stunning modern European restaurant, ranked among Time Out’s top 50 London restaurants is the latest business to join the Local Buyers Club. Salut! on Essex Road, Islington is run by brothers Martin and Christopher Lange. Both attended catering college and Christoph went on to work in well-respected kitchens all over Europe, including Norway’s Maaemo and Denmark’s Noma. Basil Fansa, a founder of the Local Buyers Club, said: “This is one of the most welcoming restaurants we’

For the past decade Rémy Zentar has been ploughing his passion for food and his wealth of travelling experience into his deli and café on Chatsworth Road. The father-of-two, who grew up in Lyon in France, launched L'épicerie 56 in 2007 just after his son Izac was born. He’d been working in the catering and hospitality industry in South Africa and California and wanted to be more local. He said: “When we launched, the transport was almost non-existent, the Overground trains st

A new café and bakery has just opened in the former Foxlow building in Stoke Newington, with a work hub to follow soon. The Last Crumb has been launched by best friends Paula Chapman and Helen Collier, who met at drama school, and Helen’s nephew, Jamie, who is Head Chef. The trio have been hard at work for months planning the look, feel, infrastructure and flavours of their new business, which occupies one of N16’s biggest restaurant spaces. The café side of the business is a

The chance to work for a start-up company running a neighbourhood pub in Stoke Newington was more than Tim Shanks could resist. The 37-year-old has amassed almost 20 years of experience in pub management, having started as an apprentice with Bass Taverns fresh out of school. He ran pubs with huge capacities in York and Leeds before moving to London and working in Notting Hill and Wandsworth. “I saw an advert in The Caterer for someone to run The Prince and it sounded like th

The Local Buyers Club is helping to run a Toy and Food Appeal which will deliver gifts to thousands of inner-city children living in poverty this winter. The rising cost of living and welfare cuts and sanctions hit the most vulnerable hard. ​ It's the fourth year that family website StokeyParents has run the appeal – last year more than 2,000 children received a new gift and hundreds of meals were donated to the local Food Bank. This year they're joining forces with the Loca

An indulgent stay at an eccentric hotel prompted former fashion buyer Sam Parsley to launch an online shop ‘The Curious Cockney’. Sam, who lives in Mile End was previously a buyer for ASOS, River Island and Topshop and was taking time out to look after her two children. She was enjoying a weekend at the Crazy Bear in Beaconsfield. “Before I went back to my room, which was all mirrors, crushed velvet and bling, I had a thought: Wouldn’t it be good to setup a small company that