I have just spent a year in Liverpool off and on, dispersing and disposing of my late mother’s house and effects, and re-acquainting myself with the city. It is a place beguiling and infuriating in equal measures, and over the decades I have known it, prone to peaks and troughs which don’t necessarily chime with …
Coffee
Euphorium and Harris & Hoole at Tesco
Many people have a love-hate attitude towards supermarkets. They can be seen as a massive convenience to which we have succumbed, reducing the tedious process of daily food shopping to a bearable once a week exercise. We have better things to do with our time, we say to ourselves. We promise to trek to the …
Balthazar Bakery
The most eagerly awaited opening in the restaurant world this Spring was the second branch in London of Balthazar, Keith McNally’s highly successful New York restaurant. Arguably the doyen of the New York restaurant scene, McNally has opened 12 individual restaurants over the last 25 years, all in out-of-the-way places. Although, such is the self-generated …
La Fromagerie
It’s too long since I haven’t been (as the French say) to La Fromagerie in Marylebone. Patricia Michelson’s emporium of gastro delights has expanded into next door on Moxon Street to make a much more integrated space. The question of what to have for dinner tonight begins to be solved as you enter between crates …
Caravan Kings Cross
It’s hard to think it’s only just over 2 years since Caravan opened its doors at the end of Exmouth Market. The pared-down recycled look combined with a relaxed all day eating style has since become ubiquitous. However laid back they may seem, the two operating owners have always been clear about their intentions. Chris …
The Espresso Room
It is clear that the “Friends” style of drinking large mugs of tasteless milky coffee drinks in spacious lounges is passé. For one thing, the business model does not stack up. How can one person on a sofa, tapping away for 30 mins at a laptop, and spending perhaps only £3 justify that kind of …
Beauty in the Making
This subject is a bit off piste for this blog, but there is a connection as I will explain later. Yesterday, I was searching for Ben Townsend to take a picture of him for a piece on the Espresso Room in Bloomsbury (coming next). I found him in the basement of Victoria House the running …
Coutume Cafe – Paris
In London the influence of Melbourne on the café scene has been strong and prolific for a good five years now. There are enough independent coffee bars with serious guys (it seems to be a mostly male activity) operating Marzocco espresso machines to warrant a guide book, and indeed one has just been published by …
Brill Exmouth Market
Exmouth Market is a veritable mecca of critically acclaimed cafés, laid back restaurants and street food: Caravan, Moro and Morito, Gail’s Bakery sit amidst all the delicious smells from the food stalls which waft towards Farringdon Road, enticing office workers at lunchtime. One of the best things about EM is that it is not too …
