Black Cat Café burglary: Residents rally with funding drive after vegan eatery break-in

Broken glass at the Black Cat Café. Photograph: Black Cat Café/JustGiving

A funding drive has been launched after a break-in at a vegan café over the weekend.

Glass at the Black Cat Café in Clarence Road, Clapton, was smashed by burglars who stole cash and equipment.

The eatery, run as a workers’ co-op, is considered one of the country’s top vegan establishments. It has now reopened, and police are understood to have made two arrests in connection with the incident.

A message posted on the website JustGiving, through which money is being raised, stated: “Understandably, the co-op members who pour their lives into the café are incredibly distressed by this experience.”

Money donated will go towards repairing the front door, replacing stolen cash, repairing the stolen till system and covering revenue lost “due to the cafe being closed on its busiest day of the week”, the message pledged.

Daisy Buckthorpe, the cafe’s manager, told the Hackney Citizen the fundraising efforts were started by a vegan blogger. She said she and colleagues were “humbled” by well-wishers’ messages of support.

“It’s been difficult for us to go through this and just feel like so much has been lost, but the massive light out of this is we have really seen how much our customers care about us,” she added.

The incident is not thought to have been a targeted attack.

The Black Cat Café is renowned for its fry-ups with beans, potatoes, pancake and tofu scramble.

The eatery’s base was formerly home to the Pogo Café, also a vegan cafe, until it closed after eight years in 2013.