Dark Sugars
Dark Sugars used to have two shops on Brick Lane, one at the southern and the other at the northern end, with raw materials sourced from one of the owners’ family plantations in Ghana. (Another branch can be found in Greenwich.) However, the pandemic has had a marked effect on business.
Despite moving its handmade chocolate and cacao business online and offering premium ice cream, hot chocolate and coffee drinks to customers, it was obvious that at least part of the business was not sustainable. Which meant that the larger of the two shops, which occupied the historic site of The Famous Clifton restaurant, closed in early 2021. The freeholder of the premises, the Bangladeshi-born owner of Preem, a nearby curry house, has since decided to reinvent the business by opening Italia Graffiti Street Food Bar, a licensed, air-conditioned food court. The aim is to target customers willing to pay a premium in exchange for a more comfortable dining experience who would otherwise use the open-air food stalls on the Old Truman Brewery site. During the pandemic, the owner has also transformed the second branch of Preem he owns on Brick Lane into the House of Fish, an upmarket fish and cocktail bar. ‘Tastes are changing,’ he says, ‘people now want to eat really healthy food.’