i used to work as a dispatch rider in london and went to hundreds of cafes and i've seen some of my old faves on your website. i wonder if you can help me find a real gem.... it was a small cafe run by an ex-boxer in his late 50's and had old b&w photos of boxers/fights/promo posters all over the place and i mean from skirting boards to ceilings. the food was good but the character of the place and the people there was awesome. all i can remember is that it was in it's own small building in the greenwich area on a desolate industrial estate. it'd be great to re-visit or see a review cheers and thanks for all that dedicated eating
It may be too far out of the west end for you, but I have a haven of greasy spooned-ness at the end of my road. YORK CAFE on Woolwich Road is clean, friendly and with proper chips. It is even licensed I think. Give it a go!
TJ's Cafe in mortlake sw14 open seven days a weeks, big portions!! cheap. you should definatley visit this place won the "best greasy spoon" in london award 2003
Russell how come we have not seen you at our cafe you are missing a treat. We serve the best all day breakfast in the North West We cater for everyone also we are in the process of taking on the title of the Ace Cafe of the Midlands Regards Lynn & Pete.
May I heartily recommend Sues Cafe in Gillingham Road, Gillingham, Kent (almost opposite the Arriva Bus Depot). Great food, great tea............very good prices for such good quality breakfasts and dinners.
The mess in Hackney is much nicer (and admittedly middle classer) than it's local counterparts (nice sausage rather than pig's bum). Some say it's better than Mario's... Alt for a good proper greasy spoon Dilari's on the corner of Mare Street is pretty good. Packed out every lunchtime and they have a non-smoking side of the room. Finally, if you live near Ealing and you've never been to Starvin' Marvins you're missing out. I was cautiously eating my breakfast with the pancake and maple syrup on one side and the bacon and eggs and hash brown on the other. Then absentmindedly I stabbed a bit of bacon onto the end of my syrupy pancaked-up fork… It's manna from lardarse heaven.
I love yr book and website. I have never commented on one or a blog before as I dont know how to. My son got this space for me. I am trying to get info on my favourite old cafe, The Blue Sky, by corner of Westbourne Grove and Chepstow Rd,London W2, between PAddington and Portobello Rd, which was my home from home from 1974-80.I lived in various squats and flats nearby and hung out with various groovy people in those days.... It closed down a few years ago. I wld love to get photos and the name/address of the lovely Irish waitress and Italian boss.... I have tried the Archives at Westminster City Library but no luck. I am doing a Ceramics degree as a v mature student and want to do an installation recreating a table at it, the light coming thru steamy bright plateglass windows, the smells, food, china,plastic menus, etc etc. I have assembled a load of stuff (tables, chairs etc),but they are not perfect. I wonder if you have any ideas on where I cld borrow/hire perfect stuff in one fell swoop, for a few days in early Jan 07? Most of all I want to get hold of a tape/CD of cafe background noises. Any ideas? Many thanks, Emma
Very excited to have done some stuff for The Guardian today. There might still be time to get one at the newsagents if you're out and about. There's lots of eggbaconchipsandbeans stuff and some excellent words from Malcolm at the LRB. 30 years of reading it and finally I've done a bit of writing.
Finding The Islander was like coming home. This is what I remember the East Midlands being like. This is the sort of place Shane Meadows would use as a setting and tug at your heart strings and make you laugh. Fantastic place.
A strong, stirring, no-nonsense cup of tea. If this doesn't cheer you up you're Morrissey.
What a brilliant sign. What else do you need to know?
I took these pictures ages ago, May 2007, pre-smoking ban. I wonder how they're coping now? The Islander was a place that didn't mind a proper smoker. It was part of the atmosphere.
You can probably see the enormous ashtrays on the tables, smoking wasn't just part of the atmos, it was part of the furniture.
Fantastic utilitarian furniture. This isn't about nostalgic design, this is a working cafe. It's about decent grub, reasonable prices and being able to take your time over a cuppa. Brilliant.
I've been to Zippy's a few times, taken pictures a few times, but never gotten round to writing it up. Not sure why not, because it's a splendid place. A vibe of 70s burger bar overlaid with traditional cafe and community centre. Lots of regulars. Good atmosphere.
Good, thick, meaty tea. Tea you could build an economy on.
Unusually for me these pictures are from a couple of different perspectives, because they're from a couple of different visits. Normally I just shoot whatever I can from wherever I'm sitting, but this time you get more of a look round. Lucky you. This is perspective A.
This is still me in Perspective A, but shifting a bit round in my seat. You can see all the lovely worn, red, leatherish seating. With those deep curves and depressions from decades of bottom shuffling.
And now, from perspective B, we see the full range of mouth-watering promotional posters from the good people at Star Burger.
Tea pots lined up like a panzer division cresting the horizon.
This seems to capture the mood of the place somehow. Reflective. Calm. Good.
I'm always intrigued by the tides of culinary culture that wash over London. A while ago we were invaded by Australian and Kiwi coffee connoisseurship, which seemed very odd to me until Dan explained that it was to do with different generations of Italian emigration, steam technology and a highly urban society. I'm hoping he'll write about it soon so I can make sure I've got it right. And now, we seeming to be seeing a mini-influx of Scandinavian-ness. Which, heretofore had been confined to those strange kiosk places past the check-out desks in Ikea. The only place I've been in so far is the Scandinavian Kitchen on Great Titchfield Street and it's rather lovely.
A cup of traditional British tea is clearly not a central to what they're all about, but they do it nicely. And I love these big proboscun cups. (Is that a word? It is now.) And your milk arrrives in what I presume to be an authentically Scandinavian pyramid. It's the little things that make cultural differences interesting.
The decor's what you'd probably expect. Clean. Simple. Woody but not too woody. Modern wood. Wood that's read Buckminster Fuller and always uses Helvetica. This would be a fine place for designing a new town or leaving through the new Monocle. (Obviously all these should really be references to Scandinavian folks but I'm a little too ignorant for that. Sorry.)
And they take the edge of the relentless good taste with a broad selection of nicely packaged Scandinavian foodstuffs, which livens the place up a lot. And there's nothing us un-cosmopolitan Brits like more than looking at exotic foreign biscuits. Especially when there's a chance to point at amusingly named products like Plopp. Ahh. Heaven.
All this plus nice sandwiches and they're funny too. Splendid place. I shall be going back.
So it looks from the discussion here like the New Piccadilly is finally going to close its doors around the 22nd or 23rd of September. A sad day. I'm sure many people will be visiting to pay some final respects to the place, and many more will have great pictures sitting in a shoebox or on a hard drive somewhere. I thought it'd be nice to commemorate the place in pictures so I created a public flickr group called New Piccadilly Memories where anyone can stick this stuff, pictures or stories or thoughts. I think it'd be a good way to celebrate the home of many good meals.
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