Readers' Poll 2024: vote now! Plus exclusive Small Biz Sat offers

All hail your favourite independent businesses. Plus: Leyton.Stoned quizzed - and 6 brilliant local offers including a free Leyton Calling cocktail

A beauty: Clam, Francis Road. Photo: Lucie Ellen

Welcome to a very special issue: the inaugural Leytonstoner Readers’ Poll 2024. Heck, it’s only taken me nearly a decade to do this (yep, the original website celebrates its tenth birthday in 2025). But there we go: it’s the success of this year’s move to a longer, more in-depth weekly Substack newsletter that has made it all possible, with hundreds of new free subscribers every month - nearly 4000 of you in total - and, happily, an increasing number of paid-up members, too.

It also makes sense to launch the first Readers’ Poll to coincide with this year’s Small Business Saturday, now in its 12th year, which takes places tomorrow, December 7th. This day is entirely aligned with the principles of Leytonstoner, and, as regular readers will testify, particularly its core focus, the area’s ever-changing food & drink scene.

To celebrate both these happenings, I’ve put in a bit of legwork to persuade some of our diverse local businesses to give paid subscribers exclusive freebies and discounts this week. So, if you’ve been deliberating whether to upgrade, these exclusive offers might just sway you, from 10% off stores like Clam, Arch Deli and Edie Rose to a complimentary coffee (or mulled wine) at Marmelo - and the surely irresistible offer of a free cocktail at Tilbury Road speakeasy Leyton Calling. In fact, the total value of today’s offers is almost equivalent to an annual membership. And there’ll be a lot more coming next year, too. To find out more, read on.

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Leytonstoner Readers’ Poll 2024

So, let’s get on with it. First up, the Leytonstoner Readers’ Poll 2024 is kindly supported by Leytonstone’s Trading Places, who have occupied the landmark spot opposite the tube station for 25 years, no less (for a free property valuation call 020 8558 1147, or click here.)

This week I’ve had the unenviable task of having to whittle down the nominations in each category to just five, which is the (slightly frustrating) limit on Substack polls. For practical reasons, the nominations are all in E10 and E11, and mostly food & drink-based, much as I’d love to stretch the net wider.

If you feel outraged that your favourite business isn’t listed, or indeed you are the business in question, it’s purely down to these parameters. With this in mind, I’ve included 15 categories - but inevitably there’ll still be omissions. Please add any you feel passionately about in the comments (the button is at the end of the poll). If enough of you agree, then that business may potentially win. The more comments on all this, the better. And, of course, let’s not take it too seriously: it’s just a bit of end-of-year fun.

The poll runs for just three days and is open to all subscribers, both free and paid-up (and indeed anyone else you wish to forward this to). It closes at the end of Monday, which allows me time to compile the results for next week’s issue.

So, without further ado, pour yourself a wee Bailey’s, chuck in some ice and feel free to skip any you don’t wish to answer, or don’t have an opinion on.

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Same 5 Questions: @Leyton.Stoned

In case you don’t really ‘do’ social media, @leyton.stoned is the hit Instagram account that gently pokes fun at the locale while also supporting new openings and giving spiky East London vibes. It’s also the account Time Out overlooked in their Leyton Coolest Neighbourhood 2024 entry, saying the area was “fresh out of parody Instagram accounts”. Woops (for more on that story, head here.)

Did you know it was @leyton.stoned’s campaigning which led to Dom’s Subs feeding the five thousand at Loop last weekend? And they’ve also facilitated a new cocktail collab with Leyton Midland-based canned mixologists Point Cocktails: look out for the feature in next week’s issue.

I caught up with its enigmatic founder to grill them on the real questions in life (if you enjoy this Same 5 Questions column, catch up on previous ones here). And no, sadly they wouldn’t provide a selfie, no matter how hard I implored (just a teary emoji adorning the Leyton sign, obvs). But, if you frequent any of the places they mention below, the chances are you’ve probably sat next to them nursing a pint.

Where would you like to live? As much as the page jokes about the place, Leyton is great and the clearly the 24th coolest neighbourhood in the world. But if I had a magic wand then Leyton but with a big, beautiful park and Morny.

Where do you hang out? Forgive me, this answer will shock no one. Mostly in Hackney as my friends are still there. When in Leyton then it’s got to be Blondies, Leyton Calling, Marmelo, Fit As, Deeney’s, Yardarm, The Northcote or walking across the sad Orient Way Footbridge to the marshes.

What is your favourite local restaurant and why? Bengal Curry House in Walthamstow (understand this isn’t in Leyton FYI). The decor gives a feeling of stepping back in time, in the very best way, and the food and service are always great - please never change! Dina and Arch Deli are 10/10, and Scando’s Pizza at Blondies and the roasts at The Engineer are worth checking out.

What has your career taught you? That when you WFH you can also make memes and people in Leyton have a lot to say about everything. Especially shops that open and get plastic signs.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt so far in life? Big question for a silly little meme page about Leyton! Perhaps, for the love of god, don’t buy the green tiles.

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Exclusive: 6 paid subscriber-only deals

Anyway, on with the rest of today’s edition. As promised above, I’ve reached out to some of my favourite local businesses to bag some offers to help your wallet - not to mention up the fun factor - in this year’s festive season.

But first up, what you can expect in the full version of this week’s edition:

• Incredible offers and freebies at half a dozen shops, bars and cafes, including free coffee/mulled wine at Marmelo, hot drinks at Out Of The Woods, a free cocktail for all paid subscribers at Leyton Calling, pictured above, and 10% off at some of the area’s best indie retail stores

• Why I gave up on *that* queue for Dom’s Subs

• Filly Brook’s new lunch wraps: any cop?

• The return of Leyton’s unique taproom - for three weeks only

• Slice & Dough pizzeria: it’s finally open, with free pizza (wahey!)

• A bumper news and gossip section with new openings, this weekend’s pop-ups and more

“You don’t hold back, do you?” A subscriber said to me this week. And that’s true: the whole point of the paid part of this newsletter is to reflect as in-depth and authentically as possible what’s going on in our area’s fast-changing food & drink scene (with a splash of wider local culture, of course). So I’m as likely to praise a surprisingly on-point £2.99 takeaway biryani or underrated Italian trattoria as call out an overpriced lunch dish or new pub serving underwhelming small plates.

If you're hungry for discounts and freebies, longer local reads, opinionated food & drink stories, unbiased restaurant reviews and foodie gossip I'd love you to consider upgrading. Plus, you’ll be helping provide quality journalism to those who can’t afford to take out a paying subscription, and also keeping Leytonstoner.London free to all. Other ways to support this newsletter include hitting the heart button (yep, for the all-important Substack algorithms), sharing it with your friends and neighbours, or even just donating the price of a coffee. And limited concessionary rates are available to those on a tight budget (email stephen@leytonstoner.london).