Gone too soon: Peoples Cafeteria is closing this Sunday

It feels somewhat appropriate to preface today’s sad news with a quote from Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu and say, “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”

Peoples Cafeteria, the “socialist-themed, healthy cooking dive restaurant” that very quickly took a loving place in our hearts, minds and bellies when it opened in 2021 has announced it will be closing its doors this Sunday 21 May.

The reasons are quite simple: their lease is up and they’ve chosen not to renew.

We’ll let Peoples’ Director Lachie explain, via their Instagram post earlier today:

“After two great years, our lease is up and we have chosen not to renew it. Peoples as it is will close this Sunday the 21st of May and there is no dinner this week. This was a hard call to make but the right one for our business,” he said

“Peoples is our dream and we will miss it. We’ll miss the smell of incense and coffee in the morning, the neighbourhood buzz, and the plates of delicious and healthy tucker. Quite literally, it’s too good to be true! At least we all got to have a two-year glimpse of the food utopia we planned.”

It’s not all doom and gloom though, with the Peoples Cafeteria’s spirit living on forever in the form of “pop ups around the place so you can still your tandoor and yellow chickpea fix.”

They’re also planning on bottling up plenty of their beloved Big Buck chilli oil so its many fans can get a little Peoples hit in the future.

In the mean time they’ve locked in their first pop up, joining a host of WA’s best boozers and eaters at the Mane WA Day Carpark Party, taking over the old Bakery site from June 2-4.

Until then you’ve got a few days to pop in, bid your farewells, grab some bain marie delights and maybe even a cheeky conti.