The Sustainable City Guide to East London: Revisited August 2020

Jolene

Situated on Newington Green, cafe, restaurant and bakery, Jolene offers a spacious, inviting venue whether you are looking for a pastry and coffee or a new date night location. Written by hand on interior blackboards, their small evening menu changes regularly and features dishes for both vegetarians and meat eaters.

Passionate about food quality and sustainability, Jolene use mixed wheat populations grown in regenerative ecosystems in their cooking. Be sure to take a keep cup with you if you’re grabbing a coffee to go – they won’t serve you otherwise, and rightly so! 

Luminary Bakery

Luminary Bakery was created to empower women who are economically and socially disadvantaged by equipping them with transferable skills to employability, all through baking. Doing this, Luminary aim to break cycles of poverty, violence & disadvantage once and for all. Situated in the Stoke Newington area, Luminary offer a delicious selection of homemade sweet and savoury bakes – the cinnamon buns are a particular favourite amongst the REV team!

We love Luminary not only because of their incredible mission but because their cafes are inviting, homely and unpretentious making them the ideal location to catch up with friends or to have a quiet coffee simply by yourself. They have now opened their doors again and we have already made several visits!

Little Duck The Pickelry

Sister restaurant to Duck Soup in Soho, The Pickelry is a fermenting kitchen and eatery situated on Dalston Lane. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, here you will find a simple, seasonal menu with special mention to the eatery’s own homemade ferments, pickles and fermented drinks. They also offer a click and collect menu from the kitchen at Little Duck to your kitchen at home!

Yield N16

If like us you’re well into your love affair with natural wines, Yield N16 might just be your new Friday night spot. Situated just across the green from Jolene, Yield N16 is a biodynamic and organic wine shop and bar offering a range of wines, craft beer, cheese and more.

The shop is also home to a selection of organic breads from east London artisan bakery, e5 Bakehouse. Natural wine and locally made organic bread – Yield N16 is definitely worth a visit if you ask us! 

Fin And Earth

We have just recently discovered Fin And Earth, but they have soon become one of our favourite places to find zero waste everyday items and refill our empties. At Fin And Earth you can refill your household cleaning products as well as everyday food staples like grains, coffee and oils. They have also just started offering delicious sustainable coffee in their little cafe!

e5 Bakehouse

e5 Bakehouse is an independent organic bakery situated near London Fields station. With a passion for artisan methods and local produce, their breads are baked daily at sunrise, with love and time, by the in-house team of bakers. All flour used by the bakery is organic and sourced locally from UK farms who grow diverse varieties of wheat – making the bread more flavoursome, not to mention more sustainable.

e5’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond their baking – all packaging used is biodegradable and their bread is delivered to local cafes and restaurants on a custom made delivery bicycle. You can order online for delivery to your home or arrange a collection.

Yoga On The Lane

Yoga On The Lane call themselves East London’s most welcoming yoga space, and we couldn’t agree more. Teaching Vinyasa yoga, the studio host a range of classes, courses and workshops at their light-filled studio in Dalston and welcome beginners, experienced practitioners, pregnant women, and mothers with babies.

Brunswick East

One of our favourite spots for brunch and coffee, Brunswick East is a cafe and bakehouse, serving Australian inspired brunch with the goal to bring the very best of Australian cafe culture to east London. Their coffee cups are also 100% compostable and so you can enjoy a guilt-free takeaway coffee if you forget your cup!

Bulk Refill Market

Living in a city, we feel privileged to have access to refill stores such as Bulk Market that allow us to shop in the most sustainable way possible. Situated close by to Hackney Central station, Bulk Market is a small yet well curated shop where you can stock up on a wide range of groceries from pasta, rice and granola to frozen vegetables, oils and spices.

The shop also allow you to refill containers with cleaning and beauty products including laundry detergent, hand soap, body wash and shampoo. If you don’t want to go into the store, you can also order online!