Early this year, when on night shelter duty in Warrior Square, I happened to meet the owner of the close by Glass House Café. We had a pleasant chat, mainly about homelessness (the park is a magnet for homeless folk in Southend) and his business. I promised one day I will call in on his café for breakfast.

Today I delivered on my promise, having a spare half an hour while in town. I ordered their cheapest breakfast and a mug of tea, total price £5, which I felt was more than fair, especially as the breakfast was nice (notably the sausage and TWO toast) and it was a decent size, decent tasting mug of tea. I did have to wait 12 minutes which would normally be ok as I could sit outside on a pleasant day on its well arranged decking space, catching up on my Facebook messages, but it meant I only had less than 15 minutes to eat my breakfast and get to my next appointment. I didn’t feel it was the friendliest of establishments, but I couldn’t fault the service, but mentioned here as nit picking is what I do when I do breakfast reviews.

But it was a good experience nonetheless and I couldn’t help but notice homeless folk still enjoying Warrior Park. I understand the cafe opens at 7am and closes in the afternoon when punters dry up. I have already ear marked this for one of my frequent breakfast “catch up, sort out the world” meetings and I have my eyes on the next breakfast size up. I got to speak to the owner, picking up where we left off six months ago. He said the homeless folk caused no trouble and he was building good links with the community, e.g. working along with next Saturday’s Pride event. It seemed he was happy after three years running the joint (it did have a checkered start) business was doing ok and was attracting a loyal customer base, happy to use the café, which was not only peaceful compared with the High Street, two minutes walk away, but from what I could make out it offered a lot on the menu that would likely attract most tastes.

All in all, I was glad I made my impromptu visit and can recommend Glass House for visitors to the town centre, this is one establishment that they might like to try out. I was one of those who were  skeptical that when redoing Warrior Park that they should include a café, with its interesting architecture, but from what I saw, I reckon it works.