Green and Blue (Lordship Lane) to close at the end of the year
Sad news that the wine shop and restaurant Green & Blue, which concentrated on organic and biodynamic wines, will be closing at the end of 2012 after surviving a number of years of difficult trading conditions. See the blog here announcing the closure due to a combination of factors including increases in rent etc.
Still as is the way there are new entrants into the market, which includes Dulwich Vintners run by Robin Eadon. I was due to meet Robin this week to talk about his recently formed company that concentrates on the wines of South West France. Unfortunately I had to cancel but hope to meet him early in 2013. Robin used to work for Oddbins at the shop in Dulwich Village, one of the casualties of the Simon Baile debacle.
Dulwich Vintners' website
Other new ventures:
After years of being pretty moribund, Forest Hill (SE23) is beginning to show signs of life:
AGA's Little Deli and Café (Dartmouth Road) includes excellent bread, Neal's Yard cheese, Monmouth coffee and lovely olives
Still on Dartmouth Road but closer to Forest Hill Station is Berries – sandwiches, crèpes and cakes
The Butchery: Forest Hill's pop up shop: 1st-24th December
2 comments:
Haven’t been across the Channel for a good 15 years now, Jim. But it is sad indeed to witness the closure of small shops, wherever they be. I don’t want to oversimplify, but don’t you think it is due – at least in part – to the ever-increasing attraction (?) and pressure of the supermarket stores and the shopping malls that go with them ? In continental Europe, wherever you go to, you find the same brands at roughly the same price tags and yet those places are crowded. In Perpignan or Narbonne, even top-of-the-range restaurants tend to open their premises in the vicinity of those shopping centers, hardly a lovely environment, you will admit. We, the customers/consumers, are guilty. It only takes boycotting those facilities and the small merchants, shops, café’s, restaurants will by force regain popularity. The public have much more power than we think, by the choice we make of WHERE we spend our dosh !
10-15 years ago I would have agreed with you Luc. Over the past 8 or so years we have seen a gradual revivial of small quality food shops in the south east. Not all will survive but the trend is encouraging even though for the majority of shoppers it is not a real threat to the dominance of the supoermarkets.
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