Elsie's Place - Leigh Community Centre - Heart warming Cafe

August 3, 2014 by Joanna Harrison

Elsie's Place - Cafe and Tea room at Leigh Community Centre! A place to vist! 

Jo Overfield who owns Elsie's Place loves food. So it’s no surprise that one of her favourite things about running Elsie’s Place café is dreaming up nutritious soups in winter, and dazzling salads in summer.

After working in the café when it was known as Café Valise, the pop-up within Leigh Community Centre run by local arts group Metal, Jo pounced at the opportunity to take the place over when Metal’s pop-up tenure ended.

Between Christmas and the New Year, Jo – a writer who also runs spoken word, music and comedy events in Essex and beyond for Sundown Arts – designed the blueprint for her dream café, and opened the cosy, vintage-feeling Elsie’s Place on 14 January 2014.

In the six months since it opened, Elsie's has hosted a poetry launch, a day of live music for Leigh Art Trail, been nominated for one of the best local places to eat for families, and launched an outdoor seating area for long summer days.

Among the vintage teapots and slices of home-made cakes, there is a knitting basket for people to knit a few rows, second hand books to read and toys for the little ones.

Every cake is home-made, every lunch is made fresh to order, and every coffee is freshly-ground. Jo – who is gluten intolerant – always likes to have options in the café too for people who can’t have gluten, or dairy, or are vegan.

With space for buggies and officially known as a Bike Friendly Café, Elsie’s Place really is the place to be.

Open Monday to Friday 10am - 4pm but also available for private hire

Contact Jo @ Elsie's Place on :