Restaurant plans that leave a bad taste

Restaurant plans that leave a bad taste

There seems to be no limit to Londoners' enthusiasm for 'Portuguese flame-grilled peri peri chicken'. Put 'N16' into the 'Find Nando's' search engine on its website and you discover five outlets within three miles of Stoke Newington.

But the eclectic mix of independent shops, cafes and restaurants in Stoke Newington's Church Street makes it a last bastion against the seemingly unstoppable tidal wave of chain stores. Consequently, locals are unhappy with plans by Nando's to take over the site of the old Vortex jazz club.

'The owner of our local tea rooms told me six weeks ago that the once-loved old Vortex Jazz club site was to become a Nando's, even though we have seven branches within 10 minutes of Church Street already,' says Tony Rich, demonstrating on Thursday. The 41-year-old project manager at a large advertising agency said: 'I was totally flabbergasted.'

Unfortunately, planning permission was granted last December. The campaigners say they saw no notices on the site. Rich decided to do something about the move and launched 'Boycott Nando's'. One of the reasons why he and his wife love their patch of London 'stems from our passion for the history of London and specifically Stoke Newington's long history of non-conformism and dissent'.

Rob Daly, a 30-year-old student, has set up a Facebook group with an online pledge: 'We don't want or need a corporate chain restaurant like Nando's...' Almost 1,000 people have registered their support......continued below

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What's wrong with a mix of chains and independents? 'I don't think that's possible,' says Daly. 'Church Street isn't the main shopping area and to maintain a mix of chains and independents you have to have massive footfall. Cut-throat economics mean that if someone like Tesco goes in then independent stores and newsagents will close. We are already seeing developers buying up units and keeping them closed so that in future they can get a couple of units next to each other and combine them for a big enough unit for a chain.'

Nando's does not believe it should be lumped together with the likes of Tesco. Marcel Khan, managing director of North London (Stoke Newington) Nando's, says: 'We do not regard ourselves as a restaurant chain. We believe we have a real point of difference in the marketplace and each Nando's restaurant makes a considerable effort to be part of the community it serves. We have taken a great deal of care over the design of the Stoke Newington restaurant to take account of the particular qualities of the area, and we believe we can be a real asset to Church Street by supporting the local community and providing our customers with an enjoyable, great-tasting meal experience.'

The only real hope for the campaigners is the hearing of a licensing sub-committee next month. If the council refuses an alcohol licence, they hope Nando's might pull out. Ann Wilkinson, who runs the tea rooms a few doors down from the site, says the development is out of proportion. 'It is going to impose itself on the street in a way that the other shops don't,' she says.

· Rachel Dixon explains why she's joined the protesters in opposing Nando's at blogs.guardian.co.uk/food

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