New restaurant Southwark Bridge Road / Webber Street

They're fitting out a new restaurant in the building on the corner of Southwark Bridge Road and Webber Street.

Apparently it is going to be run by the people who run the little Latin American cafe on Lant Street, El Vergel.
I've only been to the cafe once, but hear good things about it generally - so a bigger version that might be open in the evenings sounds promising.

The licence application for the new place is for midnight opening, 7 days a week though.

I'm all for a bigger version of El Vergel, but not if it's selling alcohol till midnight in the middle of two large residential estates. The building there moving into has 140 flats in it, there is a big estate just across the road, more flats opposite going up Southwark Bridge Road and Great Suffolk Street.

Does anyone if they're planning on opening till midnight - or is this just a standard licensing application?

Why does a restaurant serving alcohol until midnight scare you? 99.9% of people who go out for a meal and have a drink aren't going to cause any noise or 'trouble' on their way home. If we like living in the city then the benefit we have is that we have restauarnts in our neighbourhood and that's a positive factor.

The people who run El Vergel are amazing - I love the place.

just had lunch there as I have for nearly a decade.Rest assured everything about the place is good.As a matter of interest I went to the Southwark Licensing registry site.Their application compared to others seemed very restrained,as most places seem to be going for 2-3am licensing.The closing date for objecting has passed,and I notice there were only five
objectors.

Stella, the owner of El Vergel has very kindly agreed to the following opening hours:

Monday to Wednesday : 08:00 to 22:00
Thursday to Friday: 08:00 to 23:00
Saturday: 10:00 to 23:00
Sunday: 10:00 to 19:30

The terrace will close at 22:00 at the latest

There will be no provision of alcohol outside the premises.

I am looking very much to El Vergel opening soon. I think it is a great addition to our street

JGarcia - it's really just a matter of balance.
I agree entirely that we live in SE1 partly because there are lots restaurants we can visit. I live in the building where the new restaurant is opening and have been looking forward to someone finanlly opening a restaurant. By all accounts El Vergel looks to be as good a fit as you could hope for.

but it's not just about people causing noise or trouble on there way home. The restaurant will be part of a residential building. If it were open until midnight 7 days a week it would not be unreasinable for the people living above the resraurant to be concerned.

Julien,

I now understand from Southwark Council that some residents objected to the license - I had no idea there was an application myself - and that there was a conciliation meeting where the times you mention above were agreed.
I find it encouraging that there are people who appear to be very positive about the management of El Vergel, but this wasn't a matter of kindness on Stella's part. It was about stiking a Balance between interested parties.

The times do look very sensible.

Is the restaurant part of a residential building, or are the flats built on top of a retail space?

The ground floor of the block is reatil apace. There are around 120 plus flats above. So, no they aren't converting a house into a restaurant if that's what you're asking - :). The space was always intended for this use or something similar, and the residents know this, and I'm sure most will welcome the restaurant.

But as I said, the point is just to strike the right balance. There are flats directly above the restaurant, there are families with young children, etc living in the building. A place that sells alcohol till midnight is very different to somewhere that generally closes at 22:00. You're not likely to attrack people who are primerily looking for a drink to the latter - so all looks good to me.

ssimps01 wrote:

The ground floor of the block is reatil apace.
You're not likely to attrack people who are primerily -

ssimps01, might I recommend spellcheck?

Debrajoan wrote:

ssimps01 wrote:

The ground floor of the block is reatil apace.
You're not likely to attrack people who are primerily -

ssimps01, might I recommend spellcheck?

Why?

I think it's reasonable to be concerned about a restaurant opening next to you, even a restaurant can be noisy. Living near a restaurant isn't the same as actually living on top of it.

Is there a spellchecker that I don't know about? I'd really like one but it's somewhat rude to point out others' errors, the polite thing is to ignore them (and hope others politely ignore our own errors!).