Welcome to Drury
About Us
Our History
Two Best Friends On A Journey
Drury 188-189 is a story of two best friends from east London who decided to leave their 9-5 jobs and dive deep into the world of independent cafes in London; Ali left his Security manager role and Cemal his job in academia lecturing business and economics. Both found themself creating something special with the space they took on, which used to be a unit that failed twice before. The owners wanted to create a space which defied the fast-paced and monotone cafes in Covent Garden/Holborn, we wanted our space to be different, and we wanted our amazing customer to feel a sense of disconnection from the real world and breathe, hence why we built our cafe without wifi and offering books instead.
We wanted to stand out of the crowd and refused to be another cafe, and we wanted to build a sense of community in a pretty dull location. Since we have opened, we have been given 100s of napkins with drawings and mentions of gratitude which can be seen all over our cafe; these napkins and love notes is now our daily motivation on those mornings, which we cannot understand. Why life is the way, it is…
Oh yeah, about the cafe, Drury 188-189 opened its doors on 9th December 2016. We aimed to do 3 things: smile, serve good coffee, serve good food with good/organic ingredients, and be as sustainable as possible. Starting with this mission and mindset, we quickly but surely created great bonds with locals, tourists and passerby’s; we always aim to show the same care from our 1st customer to the very last one.
Our amazing supportive customers have also helped us through our journey of the years by visiting us and leaving amazing reviews on Google, Facebook, and TripAdvisor to spread the news and the food/service they received on the day.
Our TripAdvisor account was opened by a customer of ours who sadly moved out of the area. In a short period of time, we achieved the No1 position under the Cafes in London category, which was just incredible to see the love and support shown by our customers. This was by far one of the proudest and happiest moments of Ali and Cemals life, and for this reason, please all accept a massive hug to any one of our customer who has supported us in our Journey. We currently have 3 cafes in Covent Garden, Holborn and also our home turf of Hackney, where we lived our whole life and still live, we have a strong sense of community and when we had the opportunity to open a cafe in the area where we created amazing memories it was a no brainer for us.
During our journey, we had the chance to meet, work and serve some amazing people with hearts of gold… some of them have become excellent friends, and some of them have become closer than family, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank every single one of them.
Please say hello if you see us.
Cemal and Ali.
Franchise
Join our Successful Franchise Operations
We are calling on aspirational professionals to come and join our ever-growing Drury 188-189 Franchise Partner business model and share in on our success. Drury 188-189 is a growing brand in the cafe/coffee shop industry in Central + East London and a reputable one at that. Associating with a renowned brand like ours translates to sharing in the success stories that will be shared in the times ahead, our East London Hackney Drury 188-189 Franchise café is enjoying amazing success since its launch in August 2018.
We are offering you the opportunity to jump on board a young and exciting company, we’ve built credibility with customers, neighbors, local councils, suppliers, landlords and customer reviews since launch through sheer hard work, expertise and commitment to excellence. This is the least we will expect from our Franchise Partners.
Why should you partner with us?
We are a young, passionate and hardworking team. We know exactly what it takes to launch Cafes and Specialty Coffee Shops in and around London. We can provide you with a strong brand name that has over 780 Excellent Reviews on TripAdvisor and more than 1,400 on Google and growing – in Nov 2019 we were rated No1 Café in Covent Garden on Tripadvisor and achieved this in under 5 years of trading.
If you choose a strong brand like ours and our business expertise behind you, launching and managing a business will be much easier than you anticipate. Our Franchise Business Partners are expected to treat the business like their little baby and in return will receive full business training, business support, industry knowledge, business operational guidance, full access to our business and. We can train you and develop your business skills to support you in your journey of achieving a profitable business.
Please contact: cemal@drury188189.co.uk