DishandtheSpoon

Hello Yes we are open all summer. Thanks

Lovely to see so many of you this morning. Good luck with all your planned events this quarter.

Hi Ellie We are not open at weekends yet. If you would like more information our Facebook page has up to date opening hours. Thank you

Hi Mustard Yes we are now closing at 3pm. We used to stay open later but found that trade was not strong in the afternoons, it is not unusual for us to have had our lunch rush by midday due to the high numbers of mums with younger children who eat early. We are now planning to use the time for bookable after school activities, such as a GCSE Maths revision course, & hopefully after school club. If anyone has any other good ideas for activities they'd be interested in booking up for just DM them. Thanks

Hi The survey is genuine. We are working with Anchor Tutors to try & understand the tutoring requirements of parents with 11 to 18 year olds with a view to starting afternoon tutoring sessions at the cafe. We know many parents with children in this age group use the family room and would like to engage with them. It is normal for surveys to offer an appropriate incentive which the half price tutoring session is. The data collected is only going to be used to try and create the best sessions we can. If anyone can suggest a better way to find & discuss this with the parents of local senior school children then please feel free to suggest it.

Hi All We reopened last Friday for takeaway coffee, cake, sandwiches, whilst we finish off the last decorative bits. At present we are just open week days to allow maintainable work at weekends. But we will be offering Party hire again in April. And looking to establish an after school club once the right partner organisation can be found. Thanks for the messages all, much appreciated. The Dish & the Spoon

Hi All A few people have been in touch asking if we'll be open this weekend, and yes we will! Only change is we'll close up at 4pm on saturday instead of 5, to accomodate staff leave. So if you are staying in London over the weekend & need to nip out for coffee, pastries, eggs, fresh bread, or a nice lunch keep us in mind! The Dish & the Spoon

Good Morning All Some of you may know that we were running a free wednesday morning drop in playgroup at The Dish & the Spoon. It was very informal, with a host just greeting people as they arrived, and toys at your disposal between 10am-11am. As the person who was hosting has since had a 2nd baby herself, she cant commit to being at the shop at that time anymore, and we are now hoping there might be someone else who could commit to that for a short period, just to help people feel more at ease when they arrive. Unfortunately if we cant find a host we'll have to pull the sessions for now. If this sounds like something you'd like to get involved in please DM us here, or pop in and say hi. Many thanks The Dish & the Spoon team

Hi All Just a quick post to let you know our Christmas Opening Hours. We wanted to make sure our customers know we will be open tommorow which as it is Monday we wouldnt normally be, if you need somewhere to hang out for a few hours whilst the other half wraps a few gifts, packs the car etc, we are here! So Xmas Opening will be: Monday 23rd December 9-4pm Tuesday 24th December 9-4pm Then we will close for an Xmas break, reopening on Tuesday 7th of January. We also want to say an enormous thank you to all our customers for their support in 2013. Merry Christmas! All at The Dish & the Spoon

Was just logging in to announce the news, but the news has been me to it! When we received the notification that we'd been nominated for London's Most Toddler Friendly Cafe we were delighted, but with so many fantastic other cafes in the running we knew it would be a hard battle to win. However, at 3pm today the news came in that we had won!!!! This is totally down to all of you voting for us, & all we can say is an absolutely enormous thank you for all your support & maybe do a little jump too

Thank you very much Strawbs, Knomeister, INMCD, & JonBateson. We'll find out tommorow!

opps just saw this reply, thank you Number 2 & Strawbs. Counting down to Friday now to find out!

Hello All MrsCake -Thank you very much for flagging up the nomination. We were delighted to find out The Dish & the Spoon is in the running. For anyone else interested, the list of businesses nominated for Londons Most Toddler Friendly Cafe are: -Tea House Theatre in Vauxhall - Beanies in Croydon - Gooseberry Bush Cafe in Wimbeldon - Arts & Crusts in Wandwsorth -Living Waters in Crystal Palace -Dulwich Park Cafe -Pistachios in the Park, Greenwich, -Eat, Play, Love in Battersea - Deli Nene in Beckenham -That Place on the Corner in Stoke Newington. Simonethebeaver, Pickle,Midivydale,Hazlenunhead,Susan,Mothersinc,No2, - Thank you all very much for voting & for the lovely comments. If we win there will be celebratory cake all round! The Dish & the Spoon team.

Hi All Just to let you know we will be holding children's events at The Dish & the Spoon throughout August beginning this week. Crafty Cooks - Children's cookery classes, suitable for ages 2-9 will take place at 9.30-10.30am & 11-12am on Thursday 1st August & Thursday 8th August. The children will be cook a different recipe at each session with something to take home at the end of it. Cost ?7 per class. For all enquiries or bookings please contact Heather at heatherb@craftycooks.co.uk or call 07890154651 Also starting this week we have the popular provider Tippee Toes holding 75 minute long entertainment sessions, suitable for 2-6year olds on Fridays (except Friday 23rd) 10.30-11.45 the sessions will involve: singing along to favourite songs & movement, story telling, fun crafts, parachute play & bubbles! These sessions are pre book only ?6 per child/?10 for 2 siblings. To book your child's place contact Kim@Tipeetoes.co.uk Back by popular demand we have Tea Dance for Little People coming in on Tuesday 20th, Wednesday 21st & Thursday 22nd August between 10-11.30. They will be storytelling, playing music, leading the kids in movement & heuristic play with dishes & spoons. Suitable for up to 5year olds. ?7.50 per child/?3.50 under 1s & siblings. To book please contact TDLP at info@tdlp.co.uk or 07817176018. Thank you & hope to see you at some of the activities.

I would be happy to put up some posters in the shop if it helps? I dont think we could have a board though.

Dear All We will be closing at 3pm tommorow, and 3.15 on wednesday instead of our usual 4pm, this is due to two childrens birthday party bookings. Many thanks The Dish & the Spoon

Hi Sunbob Yes definately, we are thinking along the same lines. The best idea suggested was to look into something that functioned the same way as the fly screens that some homes in countries such as Australia have, so the main door can be kept open, but the screen snaps shut as soon as the person lets go of it. We'd need to be mindful of anything that could crush fingers though, as we have already had to fit finger guards to our bathroom doors for that reason. Our main door is a glass one, so a stable door approach wouldnt work. Thank you again for the suggestions. Hoping our cosy shop becomes a better selling point in winter! The Dish & the Spoon

Hello Everyone Firstly, thank you all so much for the very kind customer feedback. And thank you to everyone who has managed to visit us so far. To answer the couple of points that people have mentioned as needing improvement. 1) Our menu - As a cafe/deli we are attempting to be a mid way point between a cafe & a coffee shop. Our chef bakes fresh cakes, biscuits, tray bakes, savoury tarts & also creates lovely fresh salads, which we sell on their own as a menu item, or as an accompaniment to our sausage rolls, pies and baugettes. We also usually have a hot soup of the day, todays is Brocoli and Nutmeg, which we serve with fresh bread and butter, and we have expanded to include home made smoky baked beans, & sausage or bacon ciabattas for brunch too. We arent set up with a chef in the kitchen all day at the moment, which makes it tricky to accomodate some of the items we'd like to include. For example scrambled eggs, pasta etc. Again, this is something that will evolve over time. So, if you have been in before and found we didnt do what you were after, maybe come again and see, quite a few people express happiness to see items that have been added since their last vists. 2) The Door - We have left the door open over the summer months, for the simple reason that the cafe gets a lot of sunshine (terrific) but this heats us up like a green house. We have got fans on the shop floor, and do try to get as much air into the shop as we can, but appreciate that for those with very young toddlers the lure of an open door can be very worrying and stressful. We have tended to manage this on a day by day basis, and ask parents if they would like to have the door closed or open. We are looking into solutions to keep the little ones in and the air circulating. Please do keep the feedback coming, we have already made a number of easy to make alterations based on customer feedback & appreciate every customer visit. And finally, to let you know, we have just launched our customer loyalty card, and will be offering double stamps on all coffees bought today. We are open till 3pmm. Thank you The Dish & the Spoon

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One school that does have a pre school section is Ivydale in Nunhead. I 'think' although I have only been there once, that Goodrich also do. I would be surprised if there are not others too. If you can get hold of the Southwark schools application booklet they have a list of every school in the Borough, and they say whether each has a pre school provision.

Hello Katiesa So, from what I know there are two things going on with the 15 hours. 1) You take a place at a local school that has a pre school provision, they offer you mornings or afternoon sessions to equal 15 hours per week. 2) If your child is at a private nursery then if they are there full time, they get 15 hours knocked off the bill. However, if they are there less than that, as in my childs case, they get a pro rata'd amount of free hours. It isnt actually a simple calculation for the nurseries at all, because my nursery showed me how they work it out and it seemed to be based on whether that child is full time or not, and every day less than full time means that they have to charge it out differently. Sorry to not be able to explain better, but Im sure your nursery can. 3) I think from what you say above, you can put your child down for a private nursery just to get the 15 hours same as option 1, but I think what I understand is that you couldnt just say, right they'll do all day on a monday, and half day on a tuesday, which is pretty much 15 hours, you have to go along with what they suggest so the sessions as described above. I am also with a branch of Bright Horizons, although not locally, and have loved it. Hope that helps.

I have bought presents for both the key workers we've had for our son at nursery. The first one I gave a nice toiletries bag, and for his last one we bought some lovely local honey & a mug. I dont think it has to be much but I do know how much they both appreciated the gesture.

I highly recommend the First aid for Life courses run by Emma Hammett. I went on one in Balham organised through the NCT but she does organise them at peoples homes if there are enough participants. I did it when my little one was very small and it really did give me more confidence in knowing what to do in an emergency. Emma is an ex nurse and is an excellent no nonsense teacher. http://www.firstaidforlife.org.uk/

Hello Do you need the nursery to be in the local area, or could you consider travelling with your child to your work area and having your nursery based there? I say this because I have had to go with that option because of no availability when I needed it locally. I found the same thing re communication with the local nursery we were supposed to have a place at. Having told work I'd come back in the July and thinking that was all fine with the nursery, they turned around in April and said no places till October. Talk about upsetting. Anyway, I then widened my search based on a friends recommendation and found my nursery. It was the best thing I've ever done. The commute with a very young child can be challenging at the beginning, but I love the nursery we use and having my child so close to me during the working day was very reassuring in the early days as they seem to always have this or that little bug. Plus pick up time was never a worry as he was so close by. If you would like to know more I'd be happy to chat. Please PM me for details. Shona

I saw it about 1pm and all was shut and locked up.