Pioneering Shoreditch café Paper and Cup opens

Tucking in: The Speaker of Hackney Jessica Webb enjoys a bite with Graham Marshall, CEO of Spitalfields Crypt Trust. Photograph: SCT

People recovering from drug and alcohol dependencies will serve coffee to diners at a pioneering café that threw open its doors today (Friday).

Paper and Cup, run by charity Spitalfields Crypt Trust (SCT), aims to help people who have suffered from alcohol and substance misuse get back into work.

MP Diane Abbott praised the social enterprise – and its menu – when she attended the opening of the trendy Shoreditch eatery.

She said: “This café has all the things I like: books, coffee and cakes.”

The scheme offers those recovering from alcoholic and drug dependencies a chance to forge new skills and boost their CVs. Six staff members will work in the café one or two days a week training as baristas and managers until they are ready to move on to fresh challenges.

Michele Kirsch, 51, a former journalist of 25 years standing, successfully completed a rehabilitation programme run by East End-based SCT.

She said: “The best thing about it is you don’t feel like you’re in recovery – you feel like a normal person in a normal job.”

Café manager Stephanie Gillespie said: “I’ve worked in so many different places and they’re some of the best people I’ve ever worked with. I can’t get them to take a break.”

The business is the brainchild of Brent Clark, who manages special projects for SCT.

Clark sees the café as a chance to build a sustainable business that can both be profitable and help those recovering from drug and alcohol dependencies regain confidence in a supportive environment.

“It just gives people real hope,” he said.

Plans are in the pipeline to expand operations and open further branches in the near future.

Clark has been assisted on the business side by Vincent McKevitt, founder of healthy food chain Tossed.

McKevitt, a successful entrepreneur, said: “The next step is the most exciting. Now these guys have to make it happen.”

The café boasts a menu dominated by locally-sourced produce.

Sandwiches are made with bread produced using flour from London’s last remaining miller, Wrights Mill, and wheat from an Essex family farm that has been in business since 1926.

In addition there is a shop selling a selection of new and second-hand books as well as a selection of artwork from local artists.

Furniture including wooden benches outside the café were made by six trainees at one of SCT’s trainee hubs.

Dozens of people turned up at the opening, at which the Speaker of Hackney Jessica Webb told the crowd: “You don’t need my best wishes. This is going to be an absolute success.”

Diane Abbott, who represents Hackney North Stoke Newington, said: “I’m always happy to see and support local projects. It’s interesting as it’s not just a coffee shop: It’s a way of changing lives of people who were substance abusers.”

Hackney MP Diane Abbott at Paper and Cup. Photograph: Aoife Moriarty