Amano

Amano Cafe in Sumner Street seems to have closed. Anyone know what happened?

Ian

The Blossom Square kiosk in Potters Fields Park seems to have closed as well.

The Clink Street and Parkside branches are still going, though (at least, they were at the end of last week)

I made a few enquiries last week but haven't had any response.

A bit of digging shows that a new company was formed just before the New Year called Amano Clink Street Ltd with local resident Permjot Valia as the sole director and shareholder.

He had been an investor in the original Amano Cafes Ltd firm.

If anyone knows more about what has happened, please either post here or contact me directly.

I was partial to the bacon sandwiches at the Blue Fin/Sumner Street branch - shame the service was often glacially slow.

They always seemed to be doing pretty decent business. It would be a surprise if they weren't making money.

But doesn't Leon next door offer almost exactly the same sort of thing?

Yes, it does, but businesses tend to cluster. One could say the same of the nearby del Aziz.

I never understood the rationale behind having both the sites at Potters Fields, and nearly opposite, serving almost identical food. They supply the food for the screenings and concerts at The Scoop so assume they won some sort of contract covering all three but maybe that was a step too far in expansion.

Still a shame to see a local business suffering.

The one at Bankside 123 always appeared very busy, despite the slightly confusing concept and service, however it did occur to me that it would be quite easy for people to leave without paying as it was so chaotic on a weekday lunchtime.

Amano Cafes Ltd was placed in administration last week:
http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/3696

Yes, it's not good to lose local businesses. Talking of which, I gather the Brisket Restaurant (formerly Bankside Restaurant) behind Tate Modern closed on 20 December. Sadly, the place was extensively refurbished during the summer - hence the name change.

longlaner wrote:

They always seemed to be doing pretty decent business. It would be a surprise if they weren't making money.

All these places that are going out of business - Woollies, Zavvi etc, etc - aren't going bust through lack of customers (or, as emmab suggests, light-fingered customers!).

They're going bust because they've over-borrowed and can't refinance affordably in the current climate.

The fact that Amano was expanding so fast was always very telling.

John_George wrote:

Yes, it's not good to lose local businesses. Talking of which, I gather the Brisket Restaurant (formerly Bankside Restaurant) behind Tate Modern closed on 20 December. Sadly, the place was extensively refurbished during the summer - hence the name change.

Again, one wonders how much they borrowed to complete the refurb . . .

The unfortunate choice of name couldn't have helped their business though - who on earth advised them to name it after the cheapest part of the cow?