Bridge Street Café

Bridge Street Café, currently owned by Nish Panesar (but now ran by Vinny Panesar), is the local café on Bridge Street used by many of the residents of Albert Square and the market traders of Bridge Street Market. The café had various different owners in the past, with the longest owner being Ian Beale. The café has a Food Hygiene Rating of 5.

Storylines[]

1980s[]

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 Osman, 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% 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.

1990s[]

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 Beale, auntie Pauline Fowler 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 Beale, 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. Richard Cole helped her with the refurbishments and on 12 January, he gifted her the iconic 'Kathy's' neon sign which he bought for £40. 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 Christine's affair with Arthur 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 the café open will do well with cabbies, lorry drivers and late home comers. 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. 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). Ian introduced a £2 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 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.

2000s[]

Following the downfall of the Beale empire, the café was closed down for a couple of months and then reopened by Phil. Having a strong hatred for Ian, Phil took great pleasure of giving the café a full makeover, erasing any memory of his rival 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 naïve sister Sam Mitchell. 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 Beale and Lucy Beale, would do most of the work around the café whilst Ian was elsewhere making business deals.

In 2009, Nick Cotton took Lucy, Heather Trott, Lauren, Abi and Bradley Branning hostage because he had failed in his attempt to poison his mother Dot Branning. 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 Clarke.

2010s[]

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 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 his girlfriend Shirley Carter as a present. They changed the name to 'Shirley's Café'.

Ian bought 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 the following month 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' death, his daughter Fi Browning signs the café over to Kathy to apologise for believing her father's obvious lies.

2020s[]

On 9 November 2023, while waiting for her husband Tom 'Rocky' Cotton at Walford East, Rocky sneaks into the café and starts a fire. Bobby Beale sees the fire, tries to engulf it but it explodes, Rocky and Peter rush in to try and save him but the roof collapses on them. All three later survive, however Kathy decides to sell the café 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 Rocky who started the fire.

On Boxing Day, Kathy along with Denise Fox, Suki Panesar, Stacey Slater, Linda Carter and Sharon Watts hid Keanu Taylor’s body under the floorboards after Linda had stabbed him in the Queen Vic to prevent him from killing Sharon. They cemented over the floor before builders resumed work on it.

The café reopens in February 2024, however Nish wants to put it off due to a flood. Bernadette Taylor is able to solve the problem and the café reopens that day. After his family turn their backs on Nish, Vinny Panesar takes over managing the café. On 1 April, cracks appear in the floor of the café and it caves in. The six women worry that their secret will come out. Denise is most concerned as she lost her necklace after burying Keanu. Stacey offers to help Denise retrieve it before the body is found. On 2 April, Denise and Stacey wait until night and they go into the café, using Bernadette's keys. They recoil by the smell (Keanu's decaying corpse). Stacey has brought some tools so they can dig up the concrete. Denise's husband, Jack Branning, enters, demanding to know what is going on. Denise and Stacey have no choice but to confess what happened at Christmas. Jack tells Denise and Stacey to go home whilst he retrieves Denise's necklace. Alfie Moon walks a young Bernadette home, but she throws up in a bin outside the café. Just as Jack has retrieved the necklace, Bernadette goes to open the café. Jack leaves out of the side door just in time. However, Bernadette spots something under the floor and screams. The police are then called.

Previous Names and Owners[]

Business Name	Owner(s)	Years	Type of Business
Al's Café; Café Osman	Ali Osman Sue Osman	Prior to 1985-1986	Café
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%)	1998-2000	Café/Bistro
Bridge Street Café	Phil Mitchell	2000-2003	Café
Laura's	Laura Beale	2003-2004	Café
Shirley's Café	Shirley Carter	2011-2012	Café
Cindy's	Lucy Beale	2013-2014	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	Café
Nish's Café; Bridge Street Café	Nish Panesar Vinny Panesar	2024-	Café

Staff[]

Current Employees[]

Name	Role	Years
Vinny Panesar/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	1999-2000
Kathleen	2000
Janine Butcher	2000-2001?
Jane Beale	2004-2011, 2015-????
Bianca Butcher	2008-2012
Heather Trott	2011-2012
Lola Pearce	2011
Mandy Salter	2012
Lauren Branning	2012
Tina Carter	2014-2020
Sonia Fowler	2014-2015, 2021
Pippa	2017
Tom Cotton	2021
Bobby Beale	2021-2023
Kathy Cotton	1989-1995, 2015-2016, 2017-2023
Emin	2016-2023

Gallery[]

Signs[]

Exterior[]

Interior[]

Miscellaneous[]

Arcade Machine[]

The Keeday arcade cabinet in the café runs Banpresto's 1992 game Super Spacefortress Macross.

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