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Nish's Café, currently owned by Nish Panesar, is the local café. The café had various different owners in the past, however, the longest Owner of the Café was Ian Beale. In Walford, there is another café on Victoria Road. The café had a Food Hygiene Rating of 5.

Storylines[]

Food Standard Agency

The café in Bridge Street, Walford was originally named 'Al's Café' and was leased and ran by Ali and Sue Osman who are the first known owners of the premises. In June 1986, Ali and his brother, Mehmet, started a taxi firm called 'OzCabs' and operated the business from a corner table in the café.

In 1988, Mehmet and Ali ran up huge gambling debts to Joanne Francis, manageress of Strokes Wine Bar, and who is also a member of the criminal underworld known as The Firm. Desperate for money the two turn to their café employee, Ian Beale, for a loan. He agrees, but charges his employers 10 percent interest and later, when they cannot meet the repayments, he demands a stake in the café. The brothers refuse, but the debt eventually leads to Ali losing the café to Ian the following year.

Ian changed the name to 'Bridge Street Café' and managed it with his wife, Cindy Beale, until he sells the business in 1991 to his mother, Kathy, Aunt Pauline and local businessman Frank Butcher. Being the major shareholder, Frank took a hands off approach to running the café and left most of the day-to-day work in the hands of Kathy and Pauline.

In June 1992, Pauline travels to New Zealand to tend to her brother, Kenny, who was involved in a car accident. Upon her return in late September, her and Kathy have a falling out over the running of the café. On 3 November, Kathy offers Pauline £6,000 for her share, however, she declines and this results in a huge row between the two. Realising her heart's no longer in it, Pauline agrees to sell her 30% share to Kathy on Bonfire Night. At the time of the sale, it's revealed by Kathy that the business is worth around £20,000, although, this was before it was valued by a surveyor.

In early 1993, the café underwent a face-lift with changes being made to the interior and exterior of the building. Kathy's boyfriend at the time, Richard Cole, helped her with the refurbishments and on 12 January, he gifted her the iconic 'Kathy's' neon sign which he brought for £40.00. Following the makeover, Kathy made the decision to open the café in the evenings as a bistro with Christine Hewitt being employed as the cook. Her business venture had a bad start when Mandy Salter failed to hand out the promotional flyers for the opening night. On 16 September, Kathy sacks Christine following pressure from Pauline over her affair withArthur Fowler. Struggling to manage on her own, Kathy makes the decision on 2 November to close the bistro, but continues to run the café during the day.

In February 1994, Frank is deep in debt and offers to sell Kathy his share of the café to her for £9,000. She considers it, but later informs him that she cannot afford it. Phil Mitchell visits Frank and offers him £4,500. Frank declines and later tells him that he will lower his offer to £7,000, but Phil tells him that his asking price is still too high. They eventually compromise on £5,000.

The following year, Steve Elliot puts the idea of an all-night café to Kathy, as it's currently only open 12 hours - 6:30am to 6:30pm. She reminds him that the bistro didn't do well, but he says that was for different clientele. He thinks that leaving café open as it is will do well with cabbies, lorry drivers and late homecomers. She agrees to rent the café out to him at night and gives him a one month trial. Steve acquires a late night licence and opens the all-night café on 6 February. After the first month proves a success, Phil speaks to Steve about sharing a percentage of the profit with Kathy. Steve offers Kathy whatever percentage she thinks is fair - she says 30%.

Ian is unhappy with the arrangement as he believes it is affecting his business at the fish and chip shop, Beale's Plaice, as his customers are now going to the all-night café instead. After reading the notice for the late night café in the Walford Gazette, Ian complains to Walford Council that Steve has opened too early. An officer from the Walford Trading Standards Office visits Steve and gives him an official warning, telling him that he can only start trading again once the application has run its course with the council. After nearly a month without trading, Steve receives a letter from the council approving the late night licence and re-opens the all-night café on 27 April. He hires a new assistant named Darren and extends the opening hours, so that it's open between 7am - 7pm.

Steve continues to run the all-night café until he leaves Walford in February 1996 and Alan Jackson is hired by Kathy to replace him. Carol Jackson is also employed to work the morning shifts when Kathy becomes pregnant and takes time off to rest. Mick McFarlane is hired by Alan in June 1997 to help manage the all-night café eventually takes over completely when Alan leaves Walford with Carol in October.

In April 1998, Kathy moves to South Africa with her second son, Ben Mitchell, and Pat Evans agrees to manage the café while she's away. Later that year, Ian buys the shares off his mum when she decides to stay living in South Africa permanently and wants to distance herself from Phil who still owned 40% of the business. The first thing Ian done was introduce a £2.00 minimum charge for lunchtimes, but the signage was quickly ripped up by Phil and the policy was scrapped. Pat subsequently resigned. He also sacks Mick from the night café when he is blamed for giving people food poisoning even though it was later discovered that it was Giuseppe's restaurant which was responsible. Robbie Jackson complains that Ian is not replacing any of the staff and that he is struggling to run the café single handled.

Ian stayed in control of the café for the following five years and employed his latest fiancée, Melanie Healy as a waitress. Mel didn't love Ian and left him heartbroken on the night of their wedding. When Ian grassed up rival Phil Mitchell and his girlfriend to the market inspector, Phil took revenge by informing the tax officers about Ian's tax avoidance. Ian was left in a huge amount of debt and desperately tried to save the café and his other businesses from bankruptcy. His attempts were dashed and he lost the café .

Following the downfall of the Beale empire, the café was closed down for a couple of months and then reopened by the Mitchell family. Having a strong hatred for Ian and the Beale family, Phil Mitchell took great pleasure of giving the café a full makeover erasing any memory of his rival Ian Beale from the place.

Ian tried to rebuild his business empire and desperately wanted to gain back control of the café. Phil, realising how much the café means to Ian enjoyed watching Ian suffer. In order to infuriate Ian further, Phil hired Ian's ex-wife Laura Beale as manager.

In 2003, when Phil was framed for armed robbery by Den Watts, Phil signed the café over to his younger and naive sister Sam. Having built a new empire for himself, Ian took advantage of Sam's vulnerability and persuaded her to sell him the café. She accepted his offer, and he once again took back control over the café. Ian employed his new love interest, Jane Collins as manager. Over the next five years. Jane and Ian's two eldest children, Peter and Lucy, would do most of the work around the café whilst Ian was elsewhere making business deals.

In 2009, Nick Cotton took Heather Trott, Lucy Beale, Lauren, Abi and Bradley Branning hostage because he had failed in his attempt to poison his mother Dot. Nick failed to notice that the gas cooker was on fire. Everyone managed to escape but Bradley went back into the burning café to save Nick. Nick escaped and Bradley was left trapped inside as the café exploded. Bradley also survived. Later that year, the café was reopened with a new makeover designed by Ian's brother-in-law Christian.

In 2011, Ian and Jane's marriage fell apart and they went into battle for the Beale empire. Ian was desperate to protect his businesses, especially the café as it was part of his history. Phil Mitchell joined forces with Jane in order to ruin him just like he did before. Phil managed to outsmart Ian, and Jane won the café in the divorce battle, leaving Ian devastated. However, Jane left Walford soon after gaining ownership of the café. Jane sold the café to Phil, who gave it to Shirley as a present. They changed the name to 'Shirley's Café'.

Ian Beale brought the café back off Phil in April 2012, naming it 'Mandy's' after his fiancée at the time, Mandy Salter. After Mandy broke up with him, Ian had a nervous breakdown and left Walford. During this time, Lucy was left to look after all the businesses herself. Lucy renamed the café Cindy's, after her mother. After Ian was found and returned to the square, Lucy would only allow him to return to the house if he signed over all his businesses to her. Later, the café returned to Ian's ownership. In November 2016, Kathy starts working at the café again and in December 2016 Ian renamed the café back to 'Kathy's'. In 2017, Ian sold the café to property development company Weyland & Co as he wanted to focus on the expansion of his restaurant Beale's. Unbeknownst to Ian, Weyland & Co was owned by James Willmott-Brown, who raped Kathy over 20 years ago. After James's death, his daughter Fi signs the café over to Kathy to apologise for believing her father's obvious lies.

On November 9th, 2023, While waiting for Her husband Rocky at Walford East, Rocky sneaks into the café and starts a fire, Bobby sees the fire, tries to engulf it but it explodes, Rocky and Peter Beale rush in to try and safe him but the roof collapses on them. All three later survive, however Kathy decides to sell the cafe to Nish Panesar, who after the sale is finalised, announces he plans to use the land to build flats. After this, Kathy speaks to Harvey Monroe, where she learns it was Tom who started the fire.


On 26th December 2023, Denise Fox, Kathy Cotton Suki Panesar, Stacey Slater, Linda Carter and Sharon Watts hid Keanu Taylor’s body under the floorboards after Linda had stabbed him in defence of Sharon. The cafe reopens in February 2024, however Nish wants to put it off due to a flood. Bernadette is able to solve the problem and the cafe reopens that day.

Previous Names[]

Business Name Owner Year Type of Business
Al's Café

Ali Osman

Sue Osman

Prior to 1985-1986

Café
Al's Café;
Osman;
OzCabs

Ali Osman

Sue Osman

Mehmet Osman

1986-1989 Café,
Taxi Service
Bridge Street Café Ian Beale

1989-1991

Café
Bridge Street Café

Kathy Beale - 30%

Pauline Fowler - 30%

Frank Butcher - 40%

1991-1992 Café

Bridge Street Café;
Kathy's

Kathy Beale - 60%

Frank Butcher - 40%

1992-1994

Café,

Bistro

Bridge Street Café;
Kathy's

Kathy Beale - 60%

Phil Mitchell - 40%

1994-1998

Café,

Bistro

Bridge Street Café;
Kathy's

Ian Beale - 60%

Phil Mitchell - 40%

1998-????

Café,

Bistro

Laura's Laura Beale 2003-04 Café
Bridge Street Café Phil Mitchell 2000-03 Café
Shirley's Café Shirley Carter 2011-12 Café
Cindy's Lucy Beale 2013-14 Café
Kathy's;
Bridge Street Café;
Mandy's;
Cindy's;
Ian Beale 1989-1991
1995-2000
2004-2011
2012
2013- 2017
Café
Kathy's Weyland & Co 2017 Café
Bridge Street Cafe; Kathy’s Kathy Beale 2017-2023 Cafe
Nish's Cafe Nish Panesar 2024- Cafe

Staff[]

Current employees[]

Name Role Years
Nish Panesar Owner/Manager 2024-
Marie Evans Waitress 2003-2023, 2024-
Bernadette Taylor Waitress/Cashier 2023, 2024-

Former Employees[]

Name Year
Guizin Osman 1985-1989
Ian Beale 1989-2017
Mrs Weng-Chung 1990-1992
Rachel Kominski 1992-1993
Christine Hewitt 1993
Sylvia Weng-Chung 1993
Natalie Evans 1994-1995
Blossom Jackson 1994-1997
Darren 1995-1996
Tiffany Raymond 1996
Carol Jackson 1996
Alan Jackson 1996
April Branning 1996
Frankie Pierre 1996
Mick McFarlane 1997-1999
Pat Evans 1998
Huw Edwards 1998-1999
Teresa di Marco 1998
Robbie Jackson 1999-????
Kathleen 2000-????
Jane Beale 2004-2011, 2015-????
Bianca Butcher 2008-????
Heather Trott 2011-2012
Lola Pearce 2011
Mandy Salter 2012
Tina Carter 2014-2020
Sonia Fowler 2014-2015, 2021
Pippa 2017
Tom Cotton 2021
Bobby Beale 2021-2023
Kathy Cotton 1989-1995, 2015-16, 2017-2023
Emin 2016-2023

Former Owners[]

Name Business Years

Ali Osman

Sue Osman

Al's Café;
Osman; OzCabs

Prior to 1985-1989
Kathy Beale Bridge Street Café;

Kathy's Café

1991-1995
Phil Mitchell Bridge Street Café 2000-2003
2011-2012
Laura Beale Laura's 2003-2004
Jane Beale Bridge Street Café 2009-2011
Shirley Carter Shirley's 2011-2012
Lucy Beale Cindy's 2012-2013
Ian Beale Kathy's
Bridge Street Café
Mandy's
Cindy's
1989-1991-2019
1995-2000
2004-2011
2012
2013-

Gallery[]

Signs[]


Exterior[]

Interior[]

Miscellaneous[]

Arcade Machine[]

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