Just a very quick post to let you know that if you are coming to London for the WBC and want suggestions of somewhere to go then I’d recommend checking out the WBC/Coffee Kids London Coffee Map.
Not only will you get delicious coffee, but the participating shops are also raising money for Coffee Kids, which is two good things for the price of one!
Restaurants have a complex set of rituals, etiquette and laws governing the interaction between the establishment and the guest. Jeffrey Steingarten (and I wish I could quote it but my copy is out on loan) talks about how the best waiters are so good that they become invisible. Plates arrive, glasses are filled and the table is cleaned without any unnecessary interuption. This idea being that people come to restaurants for two reasons: for food and for company. If making sure each of these is as enjoyable as possible is the goal then you can work back and justify the seemingly curious rules and laws laid out in fine dining. (more…)
This morning I spoke to a journalist on the phone who is writing about coffee in London, as well as the antipodean influence on our coffee scene.
One of the questions he asked was about the influence of Italian populations on coffee cultures. In Australia a good chunk of credit for the early rise of coffee culture there stems from the high standards of the Italian communities that quickly spread to a relatively small population and increased expectation.
This will probably end up being quite a long post, and sorry for being a bit cryptic on here the other day. I want to explain the history of this little project, and give credit where it is due.
This morning I got up early to fly over to Dublin, to the CatEx show there. Apart from catching up with Stephen, and lots of other lovely coffee people, and catching a little of the Irish Barista Championship, I was really there to see the guys at Marco and the new machine they had on their stand.
This isn’t meant to be a righteous diatribe, coupled with a smug detailing of how I think cafes ought to be. This is really just a rant that has been building for a little while now.
I have been extremely lucky in the last few years when it comes to travel. I’ve sat in many different cafes and coffee houses around the world and had a varied set of experiences therein.
By and large the cafe experience in England is disappointing. I am not talking about the small number of quality focused cafes in and out of London, and I am not picking on anyone in particular, but there is something a bit depressing about sitting down in the average independent cafe.
I started this map back in February last year, and then pretty much forgot about it until some folks at TMC brought it back to my attention.
Since then the same idea has been done in a bigger and better way in the US by EspressoMap but I wouldn’t mind too much if people wanted to add a few more things to the UK one which can be found here: