Goddamn the Place has just closed: Five other gay coffee joints in East London

by Petit Fours

So turns out that cafe-bar place we recommended everyone go to has closed. The Place will shut after one more night this Saturday. Yes gay venues can be EVEN MORE transient than gay relationships – trickling through your fingers like butterflies made of sand leaving only 500 iPhone photos etc etc. See our previous discussions of the matter.

It’s been a fun three months but it is a shame that the venue couldn’t keep going. As I was trying to say, and as FairyCake mentioned here yesterday, it would be nice to have a gay cafe. It would be nice to go somewhere gayish open before 10pm where you don’t have to drink shots. The Place did that and was fun, and it just would have been good if it had kept going.

Still, it hasn’t, and it was due to the venue having the wrong license for the nights they were putting on. Founder Stav Bee has told us that though she planned to run the cafe-bar-club as a permanent venture, miscommunication with the owner led to an incorrect license, and in with trouble from the neighbours, it meant the police had closed the venue down. The Place will play host to one final night – Queen Bees this Saturday.

Of course we weren’t aware of this when we wrote the first article. Stav will continue to do pop-up nights and says she’s on the lookout for a venue where The Place could work again. That’s all for now folks.

In the meantime: here are five other gayish places to go for coffee in East London. Let us know if you think of any more (what’s the gayest cafe in Stoke Newington?) Or if anyone has any other bright ideas.

Dalston Superstore
Yes you’ve heard of this place before. The lynch pin of the East end gay scene, the hipster club is a pleasant cafe during the day. People are often surprised that it can turn into a clean coffee-serving daylight place, and it can, though the staff will always have a better fringe than you. Good place to meet people or bring your Macbook along to work on your novel.
117 Kingsland High Street, London, E8 2PB

Off-Broadway
Mainly serving up cocktails to trendy London Fields types – an older version of the Superstore crowd, probably working in TV – you can get decent snack Mexican food and we assume coffee. Off err Broadway market it’s a lovely lively place to go on an afternoon. Sometimes too busy.. but then so is everywhere else in this damn city.
Rainbow flag in the window in case you’re in any doubt.
63-65 Broadway Market London E8 4PH

http://www.offbroadway.org.uk/

Dalston Emporium
This is just a pleasant quiet place to sit down and read for a bit, meet someone or eat one of those ciabatta sandwich things that all coffee shops serve. Hardly a minute away from the Superstore, it’s hip but a bit more comfortable and you can lounge around for hours over a coffee. With big street windows, there are also good people-watching opportunities. While you’re on the street, you could try out Birthdays – Vice Magazine’s new venue a few steps up the road – people seem to go in there during the day, though possibly more to stare at each other than drink coffee. Not specifically gay, more just East.
129 Kingsland High Street Dalston, London E8 2PB

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dalston-Emporium/227455870599464

Long White Cloud
This cute – and yes, long – cafe on the Hackney Road, is on the other side of the road from the Joiners and down a bit offers New Zealand strength coffee and arty types. It’s not gay-gay, but it IS a mini gallery, the staff are lovely, food is nice and the venue played host to the Fringe Gay Film Festival’s art strand – a roaring success.
151 Hackney Road, Hoxton, E2 8JL

Mon – Fri 7am-6pm; Sat – Sun 8am-5pm

Viva! Tapas & Bebidas
Okay, so this is guacamole and maragaritas rather than coffee – but one of our photographers is founder and Head Chef at this fun new Latin American restaurant just a few feet up the road from the Superstore. A tapas bar with cocktails and some nice non-alc drinks, it is always packed and friendly. Quite family-oriented it’s definitely more east London than gay but still. Walk in or book in advance. And they’re open weekends from 12.30pm so drop in in the afternoon.
2 Stoke Newington Road, London
Mon-Thu 17:30-23:30 ; Fri 17:30 -00:30; Sat-Sun 12:30 -23:30

https://www.facebook.com/VivaTapasBebidas/info