I don’t normally review bars as, although a lot of them do pretty good coffee, the like-for-like comparisons to cafes doesn’t work. Bars are more about big, brash external experiences – alcohol, lights, music, dancing – while cafes are smaller, more internal – reading a book, relaxing with friends, getting away from the world. However, if you want…
You have cafes in deli’s, cafes in cinemas, cafes in museums. Now, apparently we have cafes in recording studios. Shoreditch Grind, which is actually on Old Street roundabout, dubs itself an espresso bar, which also serves cocktails…and a recording studio. For those days when your coffee inspires you to write an awesome power ballad. I…
Another addition to the growing Stroud Green/Finsbury Park cafe scene. The Deli at 80 is a cafe/deli, as the name suggests. While these are pretty common across London, as they are a good way to monetise the space in your cafe, they are tricky to get right. Too much coffee and the deli becomes little…
‘Coffices’, or cafes that double as offices, are becoming big business in London. As a lot of people’s work, especially cafe-goers, migrates online the traditional office set up becomes more and more obsolete. And while working from home is an option, people who miss the social interaction of the office have been doing their work…
It seems everything is going online. Once a collector of CDs and DVDs, I can’t remember the last time I actually bought an actual disc. But surely one of my great loves – going to a coffee shop – couldn’t go online, right? Well, to an extent it has. A number of roasters and companies…
In France, there’s something of a tradition of railway stations serving decent food and a good coffee – this does not apply to the UK. While many of London’s tube stations don’t have room for cafes, there a few that some do – but most aren’t worth visiting. Which I’ve never really understood as, with…
Despite being a journalist and having lived in London for five years, I’d never visited Fleet Street before. I’d assumed it was just a business street with little to offer a passing tourist or wanderer. It appears I was wrong. With its traditional buildings and winding Temple alleys, there’s a lot to see here. And there…
Mini chains among cafes are becoming quite the trend in London. Three seems to the be perfect number where the owners can still manage each cafe’s details without things getting away from them. Some of these chains go for the duplicate route, essentially opening the same café in different locations; others tailor each venue to…
Back into Crouch End and another great place – this time an ice-cream café. I heard from a good source that there are over 30 places in Crouch End in which you can get a coffee. That’s a lot for a population of just over 12,000 people. So cafes are having to look at some…
As a non-cyclist, I’m not sure I quite get the need for cycling cafes but they are a thing. More than a thing – Coffee Stop had an award specially for cycling cafes. So, when the owners of Archway’s excellent Bread and Bean decided to open a new café just round the corner on Holloway…
London Cafe Review 