Ealing Council give green light to an Acton deli for the sale of food and drinks into the evening.

NOCO, a 'specialist food company' run by chef Freddie Woodruff with a space on Churchfield Road, is already selling food from pastries to Keralan coconut rice across its morning and lunchtime services.

Representing Woodruff, Nick Semper, said during the Licensing Committee meeting that NOCO "won't be no Wetherspoon or banging nightclub."

NOCO hoping to extend its hours despite concerns relating to public nuisance have been raised by a couple of residents ahead of 31 January meeting, though Woodruff told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the plan is for the deli to remain 'very lowkey'.

Before Ealing Council's decision to extend NOCO's operating hours, it was open from Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm.

Now the deli from Sunday to Wednesday 8am to 7pm and Thursday to Saturday 8am to 10pm, sell alcohol and remain open for service.

However, this is an amendment from its original application of operating hours from Monday to Sunday, 8am to 11pm and the sale of alcohol during those hours.

Freddie Woodruff is a chef and owner of NOCO (credit: Freddie Woodruff).

The chef said: "We have opened a fresh food deli on Churchfield Road that serves fresh pastries/desserts every morning (cinnamon buns, cardamom buns, Basque cheesecake etc) and a fresh lunch spread everyday (marinated chicken in dry red curry paste, Keralan coconut rice with mustard seeds and curry leaf, grilled aubergine with miso dressing and pickled ginger etc).

"The lunch will be laid out everyday in large sharing platters and will be served until we run out. The offering will change daily and with the seasons."

NOCO can now sell alcohol alongside the food during the day, and expand into the evenings, serving small plates similar to lunch.

Woodruff said the alcohol would only be serviced alongside the food, and is intended to be 'very lowkey'.

Freddie Woodruff's deli can now extend operating hours and serve alcohol (credit: Freddie Woodruff).

Against the deli extending hours due to noise levels, local resident Stewart Keller who lives in the basement of NOCO, told the panel: "I don't have a problem with the deli, I think it's a great idea...the problem is with the licensing application (being) until 11 a clock."

Keller added: "The model articulated occasional supper clubs and I have already said I don't have a problem with occasional supper clubs but what if they are so successful that they are not occasional supper clubs - they are supper clubs every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday evening."

Backing Keller's sentiment was another neighbour to NOCO, Alex Pellew, who was against the deli being open until 11pm.

Pellew said: "It's easy to say that the community wants it (NOCO) but they don't have to live in the other side of the wall. I do.

"It feels like what is being proposed here is not appropriate for this building...I don't want to be in a position where my mental health, our wellbeing, our quality of life is affected by this."

Woodruff replied: "It is not a bar. People can't come in and and sit there and drink they're coming in to have a meal and and to have a glass of wine alongside that meal.

"We did offer to concede down to Thursday Friday and Saturday which would clearly indicate that obviously that's not that this isn't a core part of the business."

Woodruff added: "We do not want to open a bar that is not that is not what our intention is. It is a deli."

The company's farm and fishing boat are both located in Boscastle, as is the restaurant The Rocket Store which Woodruff owns alongside his business partner Alex Key.

According to NOCO's website, it is "a specialist food company based in London with roots in Cornwall".

Woodruff said NOCO has been catering for the fashion and film circuit for several years, and that it has a large kitchen in a photography studio in Stanley Gardens.

To watch the full sub-licensing committee from 31 January for NOCO Stores, click here.

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