Russian café concept Ziferblat faces the closure of its London outlet, following a lease dispute.
According to The Evening Standard, the café has been issued with an eviction notice, due to a disagreement regarding the use of the building in Shoreditch, east London.
Ziferblat is the UK’s first pay-per-minute café, where customers are charged 3p a minute for unlimited supplies of tea, coffee and biscuits. Attendees are given an alarm clock to monitor the time spent in the café.
The concept places the café between being a “shared workspace” and an outlet selling food and drink.
The building that houses Ziferblat has a B1 lease, for offices and shared workspaces. The landlord has argued that conditions have been breached as the site operates as a café.
Speaking to British Baker on the launch last month, Ivan Mitin, founder, said: “We opened in London because it would be a challenge for us. We want to open in as many places as possible, so if we succeed in London, it means we can open the cafés everywhere. The response has been good. People really like it.”
Ziferblat currently has nine other outlets worldwide, with eight in Russia: two in Moscow, two in St. Petersburg, two in Kazan, one in Nizhniy Novgorod, one in Rostov-on-Donas, as well as one in Kiev, Ukraine.
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