Our online store will be closed from 21st July to 10th August 2022. Please visit our cafe on Chalkwell Beach in Essex if you are local. All online orders will resume after 10th August. 

About Us

Welcome to Saltwater

Saltwater Beach Cafe is a family run, award winning café on the beautiful Chalkwell beach in Essex, England. Our mission is to build a community where everyone feels welcome and enjoys their time outdoors by the sea with great food, drinks and laughter.

OUR STORY SO FAR..

For Liz and Jeff Carr, the journey to owning this beautiful café started in September 2016 when they noticed that a lease for the building was available. Tired of daily commutes between London and Essex, they knew nothing about the hospitality industry, but their passion for healthy, outdoor lifestyle and good food helped them to make the decision, take the chance and make Saltwater beach café a success. 

After a steep learning curve and a renovation, they opened the café in April 2017 on a Bank holiday weekend, which was definitely jumping in at the deep end!

Since those early days the café has evolved into a hub for local community, hosting events and beach cleans for Southend Beach Care Group. They were proudly awarded the 2 minute Beach Clean Board, which enables the local community to borrow litter pickers and go off and do their own beach clean.

HISTORY

The site on which Saltwater beach café resides has a history of cafés dating back to the 1900’s. The oldest and most well known café was called “The Grosvenor Tearooms”, a popular destination for local crowds as well as Londoners who searched for a quieter weekend by the sea.

Copies of old photographs, which hang on the walls in the café, show people enjoying their time on the beach. These days many of the grandparents that visit the café tell stories of their childhood when they would queue to get ice-cream on hot summer’s days.

GREAT FOOD FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY

We feel that as a society we are looking into what we are eating more carefully and we wanted to provide some excellent alternative options for our customers.  We also wanted to cater for adults and children who have special food requirements, including those with gluten and dairy intolerances, plus the vegan community – making sure anyone can eat at Saltwater Beach Cafe!

CREATING GREAT EXPERIENCES

Inspired by our passion for food and travel, we wanted to recreate the great experiences we have had as a family and bring them to the café. 

From the start we wanted to bring healthy and delicious options and build a community by the beach to encourage people to make the most of our beautiful coastline. 

With that in mind, we offer a wide selection of vegan and gluten free food so children with intolerances can have a treat on their day trip to the beach.

Saltwater beach cafe
saltwater beach cafe
SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability is very important to our story. Before even opening the café, we wanted to minimise the impact we had on the beach and surrounding areas. We use compostable takeaway packaging, offer free water refills, giving discounts to customers for using their own reusable drink cups.

Furthermore, to help our local environment we host regular beach cleans for Southend Beach Care Group.

Awards

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