Penny Blood's Black Book » Wifi Cafes

Hackney Pearl

Penny Blood — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:54:57 +0000

Hackney Wick is clearly on the up and the Hackney Pearl is definitely a symbol of that. Oh don’t worry the area still looks like a deserted wasteland only fit for amateur fashion shoots, but salvaged Formica tables, school chairs and copies of the observer are a slap across the face reminder of where we’re at now over in the Wick. For quite a while people seemed reluctant to open any kind of business as the area was rife with gypsies who’d been kicked out of (sorry re-housed), Stratford. However so far so good as the Hackney Pearl looks to be attracting all the RIGHT KINDS of people. The staff here look like extras from (all and any) music video but are really friendly all the same. The food here is great and the carrot cake is off-the-scale delicious. It’s the kind of place where they cook muffins there and then and leave them on the counter as if your mum just made them, awww sweet, that just tickles me. The spacious interior is styled so perfectly it rivals any established café in London. I’m so proud of it being in my very own Hackney Wick.

http://thehackneypearl.com/

Hackney Pearl, 11 Prince Edward Road, Hackney Wick, London, E9 5LX
0208 510 3605
Tuesday – Saturday: 10am until 11pm Sunday: 10am until 6pm

Counter Cafe

Penny Blood — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:23:15 +0000

You might think that there wasn’t much in Hackney Wick and that’s because there isn’t apart from a lot of unemployed people who call themselves artists. Anyway for months i’d been going to a fairly nasty cafe as there wasn’t anywhere else. Then a great little place opened up, eclectic and quirky, like sitting in a film students living room and serving great food and proper coffee too, sadly it had to close as the Irish gypsy’s, sorry “travellers” kept nicking their stuff. In light of this I was so pleased to discover the Counter Cafe as it’s a great cafe by all standards. Hidden away deep in Hackney Wick, next to the canal and surrounded by artist warehouses, it’s a bit like London’s answer to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It’s still pretty industrial but ever so slowly on the rise as it’s right on the border of the Olympic zone. The cafe itself attracts all the locals from builders to artists but mainly artists. I generally refer to it as “the Posh cafe” due to the exposed brick walls, wooden counters, leather chairs and fancy menu serving everything from soup and salad to posh sandwiches and Eggs Benedict. The fact that it’s owned by artists, run by artists and caters to artists (although the prices don’t) will give you a good idea about the place*.

* It’s clean though.

http://www.thecountercafe.co.uk

4 Roach Road, London E3 2PA
07952 696 388
Monday – Friday 7.30am – 5pm (Thursday 11pm serving Tapas)
Saturday 8.30am – 5pm Sunday 9.30am – 5pm

Camera Café

Penny Blood — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:38:17 +0000

It’s just so cute, tucked away at the back of a camera repair shop, and quiet and discreet with a few little tables and Simon and Garfunkel playing in the background (it’s that kind of place). The few customers here are total anoraks, wearing hiking gear including boots and said anoraks despite the fact that it’s the height of summer and we’re miles from any kind of hill to hike. You needn’t worry about being bothered though as they are too busy fiddling with their new 50mm F2.8 DG MACRO lens and taking close-up photos of the floor and a teaspoon, then examining the results intently whilst consulting the manual. Despite being located minutes from the British Museum and therefore in a heavily touristy area, no tourist would ever find it, just the odd camera nerd or UCL student. Not so good to meet someone for a chat but perfect if you want a bit of peace and quiet in central London.

http://www.cameracafe.co.uk/

44 Museum Street, London, WC1A 1LY
020 7831 1566
Monday – Friday 11am-7pm Saturday 12pm-7pm

No related posts.

The Grocery

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:52:55 +0000

I’d read many a review of the Grocery café all of which condemned the service but enthused about the food. They weren’t wrong about the food, it’s amazing. And I didn’t have a problem with the service – it was fine plus I was served by a guy who looked like the freakish blond choir boy in “The Cook the Thief his Wife and her Lover”. A bit of a hideaway tucked at the back of a chi chi deli-grocery in Shoreditch with exposed brick walls, country kitchen wooden tables and notice boards advertising yoga classes and vegan cookery lessons, it still manages to be more hip than hippie. I was inclined to hate the place, since it’s located only a stone’s throw from one of London’s poorest boroughs but has shelves stocked with 10 different kinds of glucose-free sugar, 15 different types of tofu and 18 varieties of organic granola. But the food is so good and I’d rather not give my money to Tesco.

http://www.thegroceryshop.co.uk/

Monday – Sunday 8am-5pm
54-56 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DP
020 7729 6855

No related posts.

Bermondsey Street Coffee

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:52:07 +0000

163-167 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3UW
020 7423 1525
Monday – Sunday 7am – 8pm

Coffee @ Brick Lane

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:30:13 +0000

It’s often hard to get a seat here as it’s always heaving. The types who come here are the kind who move to Brick Lane because it’s cool not because they’re cool. I bet everyone here has a job in something related to advertising but they hang out on Brick Lane at Coffee @ on a weekend looking like a graphic designer for a fashionable t-shirt company or record label. I think this demographic fits the majority of East London so whoever is reading this would probably fit right in. I’m probably being unfair though as most of my friends fit into this category. On the definite plus-side it has most of the trappings I look for when drinking coffee: 1. it’s not a Starbucks; 2. it has large comfortable chairs taking up valuable retail space; 3. they do a soy latte; 4. it’s full of people I can guiltlessly slag off; and 5. it’s full of people I want to be friends with.

154 Brick Lane, Spitalfields, London, E1 6RU
020 7247 6735
Monday – Sunday 7.30am – 8pm

Hurwundeki Café

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:29:13 +0000

On my initial discovery it was like an episode of the Twilight Zone. I decided to walk up Cambridge Heath Road to avoid waiting for a bus as it was a rare sunny day when I came across what looked like a garden centre or children’s crèche with an abundance of garden gnomes, miniature chairs and rocking horses in a sand-covered fake beach sort of thing with very old deckchairs and a lovely old oak kitchen table. Situated next to the overground station and facing a particularly seedy strip club, it turns out Korean-owned Hurwundeki, one of my favourite clothes shops, has opened an amazing café/antique shop playing 20’s jazz, and kitted it out with old wooden furniture you might find in a sailor’s beach cabin, decking and an array of books and magazines that cost £45 strewn across tables. The food which is generally only a roast vegetable ciabata sandwich is totally delicious and made by Frederic, the best thing to come out of France. Oh and all the furniture is for sale and they have a great second hand furniture shop next door with anything from Victorian barbers’ chairs, to top hats to 1950’s kitchen dressers.

http://www.hurwundeki.com/renew/store/cafe/cafe_main.php

299 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9HA
020 7739 3899
Monday – Friday 7am – 6pm Saturday- Sunday 9am-6pm

Candid Arts Café

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:27:15 +0000

A home away from home with big comfy chairs (which they probably salvaged from the street thrown away by some landlord who couldn’t use them due to the fire hazard). It’s hidden in the Candid Arts Trust and you wouldn’t know it was there unless you knew it was there, which is its main attraction. It’s fairly hippy-looking with some hideous paintings but still a great place to go by yourself to read or write. It’s surrounded by art studios with grungy looking artists who wear corduroys and wool cardigans and don’t realise how deeply uncool it is to have a studio here and that Hackney Wick is the ONLY place to be. All the chairs come from the Royal Opera House when it was re-furbished (something I overheard) which certainly adds charm I think and invariably it’s totally empty. It stays open until 10pm which is a rare treat in London where cafés all seem to close at 6pm. You can get a glass of wine there in addition to all the usual fare, coffee, cake etc etc…

http://www.candidarts.com/sections/galleryandcafepages/candid_cafe.htm

3 Torrens St, London, EC1V 1NQ
020 7278 9368
Monday – Saturday 12pm-10pm Sunday 12pm-5pm

Lemon Monkey

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:10:02 +0000

Ok so another faux-Italian deli cum café, I guess I can’t get enough of these places. Distressed furniture and walls adorned with shelves of jars and Italian produce are two themes I always plum for and like gastro pubs, London has no shortage of them. I’m just picking out a few of my favourites. The best thing about Lemon Monkey apart from the big cups of coffee and delicious deli food is that it has a separate little room up some stairs at the back with big windows and comfortable chairs where you can while away the afternoon reading the newspaper in relative seclusion. It may seem a bit far out but with Abney Park cemetery and the shops on Church Street minutes away it’s worth the schlep.

188 Stoke Newington High Street, London, N16 7JD
0207 241 4454
Monday – Wednesday 9am-6pm Thursday – Saturday 9am-9pm Sunday 10am-6pm

No related posts.

Ray’s Jazz Café at Foyle’s

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:19:20 +0000

I think it’s accurate to say that Ray’s is the central meeting point for anyone coming to Soho. Situated in Foyle’s bookshop it serves all kinds of healthy food and cakes, coffee, tea and other drinks. Its pouring with rain outside and it’s a handy place to find myself as I have the whole book shop attached to browse through. I use Foyle’s as my own personal lending library, buy and take it back later. Although Ray’s is a favourite, I generally avoid it as I went to college next door and it was our unofficial canteen, too many college people still linger here and I believe you will find ‘small talk’ under my list of ‘pet peeves’. Although it’s totally impersonal being in the centre of town, it’s spacious with big wooden tables and window seats and it’s a great place to come if you don’t want to leave in a hurry, great to meet people or hang out all day with your laptop.

http://www.foyles.co.uk

113-119 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0EB
020 7437 5660
Monday – Saturday 9.30am-9.00pm Sundays 11.30am-6.00pm (Public holidays 11am-8pm)