London’s Walthamstow Central is the home of Spar and Eat 17, a new and unique combination of convenience store and restaurant.

Shops that have coffee bars are increasingly commonplace these days. What is less common is shops that have a restaurant attached or perhaps the other way around. And what is almost unknown until recently is a convenience store that has a restaurant as part of its proposition.

Travel by Tube to London E17 and you arrive at Walthamstow Central. It is not one of the capital’s most chi-chi destinations but there is an area, little more than a stone’s throw from the Tube, where village London, complete with organic butchers and pubs serving craft beer, all vie for the middle-class leisure and retail spend.

This is the location of Eat 17, a restaurant that has all the hallmarks of the Islington set, complete with a tasteful grey frontage and a simple, yet expensive-looking interior. And next door to this there is a Spar. This Spar looks for all the world like a part of Eat 17, and it is. The two operations are run by the same owner and bread baked in the Spar, for example, finds its way onto the menu in Eat 17.

The spin-off creates other synergies between the two. Inside the Spar, there is an Eat 17 Patisserie and the artisan-style bread is displayed on rough wood fixtures around the perimeter. All looks good, although having large numbers of roller cages in the shop at midday does feel like a mild dereliction of duty. A store should be restocked by this time.

The issue that is likely to raise its head here, however, is pricing. It is aspirational and more in tune with Waitrose than the not-so-distant Tesco convenience store near the Tube station. Whether there are sufficient numbers of the right demographic to make this one fly long-term is a moot point, but meantime, this is an interesting development.