Unsustainable costs have forced one of the best cafes in Walthamstow / Leyton to close
Jen Weiss, the owner of the much-loved and charming east London cafe-restaurant Lighthaus in Leyton Industrial Village, has announced the venue has closed permanently, saying she “looked into every option to avoid it.”, Weiss wrote that it was “absolutely heart breaking” that she had no choice but to permanently close the cafe-restaurant.
Lighthaus opened on an industrial estate in Leyton, east London nearly six years ago, when, Weiss says, she “turned a lifelong dream of a cafe into a beautiful mad journey.” She described community which grew around the cafe and which it helped it through the tough times of the COVID-19 crisis had been “overwhelming.” “We slowly grew into our wee haven, when we were hit by a pandemic.
In the last 18 months, the cafe had garnered a stellar reputation, beyond the one it had cultivated among its local, regular clientele. That was in part a result of ex-40 Maltby Street chef Alex Vines, who introduced clever dishes, such as seasonal tarts, salads, croquettes, and the like — all which recalled Southern Europe. Vines