Edinburgh Council has told a popular Greek-styled café they do not have permission to trade.
The City of Edinburgh Council rejected the bid from Don’t Tell Mamma on Wednesday February 2 to operate a café at their premises in Tollcross.
The famous coffee shop opened in 2018 and has become well known throughout the city for their tasty Greek pastries, like spanakopita and bougatsa but it appears that they have been operating without permission.
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The site is a ground floor unit, located on the west side of Home Street.
The premises was built by Dunn and Findlay in 1897 and lies within the Merchiston and Brunstfield Conservation Area.
Old pals, Themistocles Sima and Stathis Tsakiridis, started up the eatery and bake all of their own products in store at 64 Home Street.
Edinburgh Live reported last year on a coffee garden pop-up they started next to St Mary’s Cathedral.
But the owners noticed recently that there was issues over planning permission and contacted the council.
The old owners applied to Edinburgh Council in 2016 for planning permission and it was decided that the premises could be used as a bakery.
This meant that when Don’t Tell Mamma took over the building in 2018 there was planning consent for the bakery only, but they have been operating as a café bistro for a while and were unaware they needed planning permission.
They submitted the rejected application last year and told Edinburgh Live today that they now plan on returning another application to the council in the coming weeks.
A spokesperson said: “We’re already working on our next application for the café and hopefully this time we can make it work.
"Thankfully we have a lot of support from the local community, that is a pleasure to serve.
“The St Mary’s Cathedral also showed the best support and help we could possibly ask for.
"This year we’re coming back with an idea that will compliment the already lovely community of West End, with a concept garden café that will bring a unique outdoor experience.”
Rejecting the proposal Edinburgh Council officials said that the proximity of the ventilation system to nearby properties was having a detrimental impact on neighbouring properties.
The Report of Handling explains the rationale behind the rejection and explains Environmental Protection recommended it be denied.
It says: “The ventilation system vents cooking odours from the rear of the premise onto the flat roof and drying green that serves surrounding residential tenement properties. The exhausting effluvia will be dispersed in front of the residential windows to those properties and has been subject to noise and odour complaints in the past.
“Given the proximity and relative height of the flue to the flats, there are concerns that the effluvia blowback regularly enters those properties. There is a likelihood that the effluvia cooking odours would impact upon the amenity of the surrounding residential properties.
“Environmental Protection recommends that this application be refused as it is highly likely that the existing level of amenity enjoyed by surrounding residential properties will be diminished and detrimentally impacted should this application be granted.”
