A POPULAR café in a south Essex beauty spot is being taken over by new management who are looking to transform it into a vibrant restaurant.

Ali Erdogan, who currently owns a restaurant in Hornchurch, is taking charge at the Lake Meadows Café in the Park and is overseeing the renovation of the building.

The café, while popular, closes between October 31 to April 1 most year and drops down to a weekend-only service throughout October.

However Ali aims to keep the business open throughout the year, transforming it into a new restaurant and community space.

Helped by his brother Mike Erdogan, Ali has high hopes for the building renovation and believes it will be open for business in January.

He said: “We are renovating it now, we are going to integrate a proper café and restaurant and while I have only taken over in the last three days, we saw an opportunity.

“We are thinking it will be open properly just after the new year and while it is always closed at this time of year, we are going to open it all year soon.

“It is going to be all family run.”

Ali added that the restaurant and café will be “a nice place open on a regular basis, so people can come over for hot drinks, cold drinks, proper meals and food and they can sit down and enjoy themselves”.

He added: “They can enjoy it, even the dog walkers can sit down and enjoy themselves and runners and different communities can come over too.

“We want to reach out to community groups.”

Currently the business is having the flooring replaced, to ensure that when people do come in they are able to enjoy a “fresh, new and different” experience of the popular spot as soon as they come into the café.

The Lakeview Palace, based in the Boathouse in Harrow Lodge Park, is a similar lakeside restaurant café, offering hot food, cold food and a wide range of drinks and menu options for customers.