A family-run business can serve alcohol at its new Store Street branch after Camden Council agreed to grant a premises licence but added a condition to ensure the council’s “women’s safety principles” are adopted at the restaurant.
Honey and Co Daily will be Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich’s fourth branch to open in central London offering Middle Eastern food.
The new restaurant will have 40 seats across two floors, with 22 more seats outside, and can serve alcohol between 10.30am and 10.30pm on Mondays to Saturdays providing customers are having a meal.
Councillors Gio Spinella (chair), Lorna Greenwood, and Jenny Headlam-Wells considered the application for an alcohol licence at a hearing on 14 September.
The Charlotte Street Association residents’ group had asked for outside seating to be closed at 9pm and for alcohol sales to end at 10pm to reduce the impact on nearby residents. These include people living in 11 flats above the premises.
They also suggested the venue should sign up to the “Ask for Angela” scheme to promote women’s safety.
The scheme means customers can use the code word “Angela” to show they need help.
It started in 2016 and has spread across England to promote safety. It is a key part of Camden’s licensing policy.
One resident had written in to object to the alcohol licence: “Store Street does not need another premises serving alcohol. There are at least 10 premises that do so. This only brings more noise, particularly in the summer when residents tend to open their windows.”
Applicant Itamar Srulovich said he had discussed concerns with residents.
“We are a family company and have been trading in the area for 12 years,” he said, telling councillors that there had never been any problems.
Cllr Jenny Headlam-Wells (Kentish Town) asked why the application did not include the women’s safety principles.
Srulovich said: “The safety of anyone who comes to eat with us is foremost on our minds.”
He pledged to make sure Ask for Angela works if it is a condition, but added: “We couldn’t find a way to implement it.
“There’s no way that someone will be in distress, and we will not clock it.”
Cllr Headlam-Wells said it “would be a bonus to show to female customers that you are aware of this possibility”.
She said unisex toilets could add to concerns if people had too much to drink.
Mr Srulovich said: “We have alcohol training, we do not over-serve.”
There will always be three members of staff on the premises, he said.
Cllr Lorna Greenwood (Fortune Green) said: “It’s not just customers, it’s staff.”
She said it was a Camden-wide policy so customers and staff could ask for help in licensed venues.
“It’s important from an awareness perspective for your staff and the public to have consistency across Camden.”
Srulovich said his venues have operated safely with no problems for the last 12 years and said the women’s safety principles do not apply to restaurants.
However, Cllr Greenwood said the Ask for Angela scheme does apply to restaurants.
Cllr Headlam-Wells said attitudes have changed so much over the last 12 years about sexual harassment of women and the council is at the vanguard of promoting the Ask for Angela policy.
She said it would show the restaurant is “making an extra effort to make female customers more comfortable”.
The licensing panel agreed that Ask for Angela was more relevant for pubs and bars, but said restaurants should train staff about the scheme.
The licensing panel granted the application but added a condition so that the premises will at all times adhere to the “women’s safety principles”.
Camden Council, Licensing Panel B – Thursday 14 September 2023.