A chat with Café Hebe
Creative spaces, living to work and the favourite family dog!
The recently-opened Café Hebe is a café-come-bar on Kingsland Road, but, for first-time business owner, Jackson Christie, the vision for this place goes way beyond coffee and cake. The café is part of the Playhouse East family, a new creative hub with a focus on providing artists with accessible opportunities, including a “Pay What You Can” scheme for hiring out their studio. As an extension of this ethos, Café Hebe is designed to be a multi-functional venue that can be adapted to host everything from live jazz to writers groups.
During the day, the sun streams through the café’s south-facing windows, shining on the flowers dotted across the tables. The room is filled with people tapping away on laptops, plucking a book to read from the bookcase and sipping a flat white, with beans supplied by Workshop Coffee. Having perfected the art of the sandwich in lockdown, Jackson’s lunchtime menu blends the heartiness of home comfort food with the finesse of a seasoned professional. The ingredients are thoughtfully sourced, and in true Hebe style, the sandwiches change on a weekly basis! By night, the café transcends into a flow of wine and chatter and if you’re after a stiff martini, they’ve got you covered.
Endlessly exciting yet completely unpretentious, this place is a valuable addition to both the creative sector and the hospitality industry. Whether you want to perform stand-up comedy or simply grab a pint in the sun, the doors at Café Hebe are (literally) always open!
How did you land on a name for Café Hebe?
I had quite a lot of East-Londony names to begin with and I had thought about going down a clean-cut, Scandi route for the café. There are a lot of amazing places that do that style really well but it’s just not me and not what I want this place to be about. My personality is a bit more scruffy and rough around the edges. I wanted this space to be a reflection of that, I wanted it to feel like home. My mum designed the whole thing with mismatched chairs and different colours - it feels comfortable, relaxed and not pretentious. I also like hanging out in pubs and I wanted to bring the cosy elements of that - all these tables and stools are from pubs.
Hebe was my family dog and she died last year after being with us for 16 years. Our family have had loads of dogs and my brother and I speak about them a lot. We rank them which sounds kinda messed up, but Hebe was always top! She had this cat-like temperament like she didn’t need your attention. She was so cool.
The interiors give the space personality, it feels like it has a bit of everything - café, wine bar, pub, live music, it even has a bit of a library feel with the bookcases at the back! Was it always the intention to create a hybrid venue?
Yes. I grew up in Brighton and all my mates were musicians, actors and artists. I spent so much of my childhood going to their band practices and sitting in the corner, still having a great time but never getting involved. I wasn’t an artist and I think I was always a bit jealous of that, so from a really young age, I had this idea to create a space that all my mates could come to and do their art, basically, so I could just hang out with them all the time! Then I got into food, working in restaurants and corporate catering. That dream always stayed with me. I started to think, maybe, hospitality could play a role in that dream and I could essentially host a creative space.
I think another bonus of a hybrid venue is that it gives the place longevity because you can continue to evolve with the times and keep being exciting to people.
Yeah, I think you’re right! I could do an evening menu for a week if I wanted to, or, if I got my hands on a great piece of meat, I could serve steak frites tonight, but I’m not pigeonholing myself into being a restaurant. I’ve always loved sandwiches and over lockdown I got really into making them. Sandwiches lend themselves to being more fluid in this kind of space whereas an à la carte menu wouldn’t really work. I want to do bar snacks and I might want to do some sort of evening food in the future. Café Hebe isn’t fully bookable because I want to be able to move tables around and curate the space depending on what people want to use it for. I’m starting to see my dream come to life; my mates’ art is up on the walls and I’ve got friends who are actors coming in to do a cabaret night soon.
I wanted to touch on Playhouse East – their ambition to make film and theatre accessible for emerging artists is so important in the creative industry. What was it about working with them that made you want to open the café?
I wasn’t planning on starting anything until I met James and Vita [owners of Playhouse East]. We met when the place was completely derelict and I didn’t really know what to expect, I thought they might need a General Manager. They told me about their dream for Playhouse East - they wanted different elements of creativity in the building, from music to poetry to writing - and I immediately knew they were pretty special people. Then they told me that they wanted me to open a café. When I left that meeting, I was buzzing. I couldn’t sit down. I was like, this is it, this is the dream I’ve been waiting for!
Their ethos is very much about renting out the rooms on a “Pay What You Can” basis and trying to give young creatives a path to propel their careers. They’ve given me that same ethos - they saw that I had a dream and they said we’re going to give you a shot. Café Hebe is an avenue of their vision and I want to extend their ethos in the way I do events here. I have a guy who has a background in mixology but wants to start doing supper clubs despite not having any experience in it and he’s doing an event here in June! I want to support young up-and-coming artists and bring people into this community space.
Do you have any advice for other young people who might be looking to start their own business, pivot their career or try something new?
I was working a nine-to-five rat race-type job and it was fine, it paid the bills but I wasn’t fulfilled by it. Although my work-life balance was better then than it is now, I just used to live for the weekend. For eight hours a day, five days a week, I was somewhere I didn’t want to be and that’s a lot of time to be doing something you don’t want to do. I’ve always said that before I settle down and start a family, I want to live to work for a bit, rather than work to live. I wanted to have my passion and my life within the job I do, so that 24 hours a day, I’m satisfied.
My advice would be, if you’re in a dead-end job, just think about what you love doing and start small. Do a couple of things that aren’t going to cost a lot of money (hire out Café Hebe!) or come with a big risk. You can still work your nine-to-five. And if you like it, doors will open. For example, I started a small events company with some friends last year, through which I got lucky and connected with the guys at Playhouse East. It’s all about putting your physical body in places where you might meet someone who has an opportunity for you. Instead of sitting behind a computer thinking about doing something, get out of your comfort zone and go and get scared!
We want people to come in and play their music, say their comedy, write stuff and do improv sessions. If there’s anyone who wants to do something, follow along and reach out!
Café Hebe
258 Kingsland Rd, London E8 4DG