Seasoned viewers of The Apprentice were surprised this week when the losing team were sent to an unfamiliar cafe. Last week they ended up in the Bridge Cafe in Acton, as per usual, which would normally have meant this week was La Cabaña on the Park Royal trading estate. Instead the disgraced candidates were sent somewhere called Lisa's Cafe to enjoy a mug of tea while they picked their colleagues apart.
This unexpected eaterie obviously sent dozens of viewers to Google to determine where on earth it was (aha, near Uxbridge), and yesterday I caught the U2 bus to Hercies Road to see it for myself. And it wasn't there any more.
To help you get your bearings this is just around the corner from Hillingdon tube station. It's also just off the A40 which makes sense because the Apprentice boardroom scenes are filmed in Park Royal just off the same road, although eight miles away so it's an unusual choice.
I double-checked the address and spotted what had happened - Lisa's Cafe had changed hands. It was now called Sandy's Cafe and looked very different because it had net curtains across the window rather than being able to see in. The door was also steamed up so the chalkboard on the pavement saying "We are open" was crucial to enticing customers inside.
Some online digging on Streetview and Instagram confirms that this was still Lisa's Cafe last summer when The Apprentice was filming, but reopened as Sandy's Cafe at the start of January. The new owner is Jade, not Lisa, and Sandy was her late mother-in-law so the cafe's named in her honour. The net curtains went up a few weeks ago.
The interior looks nice and friendly online but it didn't from the street, and I wasn't 100% sure if the hi-vis workman who popped out for a fag was enjoying a fry-up or midway through a job. So I'm afraid I didn't go in to sample the new Apprentice cafe, indeed you can't truly sample the new Apprentice cafe because it's under new management so isn't the same business the candidates experienced. Don't let me stop you going though. And good luck Jade, because you've probably got more entrepreneurial spirit than all the egotistical chancers who came here to dissect their failings over a cuppa.
