Having said this, London's still the sort of city where one has to go out of one's way to look for drinkable espresso; whereas in Melbourne or Sydney (or, by all accounts, in New Zealand), the baseline of what a café can offer without going out of business is fairly high, here one takes one chances. (I still remember the cup of bitter, watery bilge and overboiled milk that passed for a cappucino according to the haircut behind the bar in Hoxton who made it.)
Anyway, it appears that, like most interesting activity in London, most of the action is happening around the East End, with places like Climpson, Prufrock, Taste Of Bitter Love and Tina, We Salute You (which, it seems, is within walking distance of my previous residence) getting mentioned.
Please keep comments on topic and to the point. Inappropriate comments may be deleted.
Note that markup is stripped from comments; URLs will be automatically converted into links.
Wed Mar 3 11:22:14 2010
Getting good espresso is hard outside Melbourne. I used to be addicted to the stuff and had several overseas conference trips ruined by withdrawal. In 2008 I lived in Silicon Valley for four months had to travel 20 miles to the Mission for a goood brew, a crazy situation. So I bought a plunger, got used to that style and have drunk it since, even back in Melbourne where it saves me $10 and many minutes a day. It's hard to travel with a plunger so I'm still subject to local availability then. In England last year I found one good brew, at Lantana in Fitzrovia. This has been a pain at times, and reminds me of stories of rock musicians requiring local drug hookups in order to tour. I wonder if espresso drinkers adjust their itineries according to availability, perhaps subconsciously?