One week ago I asserted that devouring a St John Bakery custard doughnut was the best thing to do on a Saturday morning in London. The food blogosphere disagreed: MiMi of Meemalee’s Kitchen said she could think of something else she’d rather be doing. Katrina The Gastronomical Me drew attention to a major oversight. [Read more...]
Killing Time & Lovely Coffee at Monmouth Maltby St
14 May 2011 By 1 Comment
London’s great coffee moment has come
“The British capital won’t be a coffee capital,” I wrote in April 2009, “until the taste for excessively milky coffees recedes and the best coffee shops look beyond espresso to filter- and siphon-brewed coffees. I’d also like to see more coffee shops sourcing and roasting their own beans.”
One year on, those conditions have been met and the wishes of the growing legion of local cafenatics has been granted: London’s great coffee moment has come. [Read more...]
18 April 2010 By 11 Comments
London EATinerary turns into a food crawl
Two dear colleagues would be visiting from LA and I had to plan the meals and coffee breaks for their London stopover. The pressure I felt was considerable: Were these demanding food obsessives coming directly from California and not via Italy my task would have been difficult enough. But knowing they would be arriving with the incomparable flavours of Sicily and Piedmont fresh in their minds made my challenge all the more daunting. [Read more...]
11 November 2009 By 5 Comments
Top 10 Coffee Shops in London
Antipodean know-how and joviality invigorate London’s coffee landscape. Baristas from New Zealand and Australia transform waves of rich espresso and smoothly textured steamed milk into lattes so velvety you can barely see a bubble. Two noteworthy imports, Melborne’s St. Ali and Auckland’s Allpress Espresso, have recently opened roasteries and coffee shops in London.
Yet it’s home-grown talent that represents the cream of the crema: Two of the last four World Barista Champions are British and work in London: 2007 winner James Hoffmann is co-owner of Square Mile Coffee Roasters, an artisan roaster supplying beans to half of the top 10 London coffee shops. 2009 champion Gwilym Davies co-operates the Prufrock Coffee Shop on Leather Lane, now the best coffee shop in London, as well as the “Prufrock” coffee trolley he and partner Jeremy Challender rolled into the menswear boutique Present. And Monmouth Coffee maintains world-class standards for sourcing, roasting and brewing beans while supporting small-batch indie roasters just getting into the act. [Read more...]
24 April 2009 By 87 Comments
