The café scene was a staple of my weekends in Australia,
both as a social outlet, but also as a way to chill out and relax after the
long working week. But after I moved to London in 2007 I found myself in an
unfamiliar city with a different lifestyle approach that centred around either
drinking in pubs all day (not my cup of tea, pun intended), or going to generic
coffee chains serving flavourless cardboard food and dirty dishwater-esque
beverages, à la Starbucks. Urgh.
Thus, my café experiences were limited to trips abroad. I
sat in the sunshine at outdoor cafés in historic squares in cities and towns
all over Europe, lamenting the lack of such places in London. I lounged around drinking mint tea in northern Africa (and even enjoyed the mint tea served to
me with warm milk in Tunisia… something evidently got lost in translation
there). I even discovered (miraculously) quirky bespoke, chainless café
offerings in the US.
But the London café scene was closed to me, only punctuated
by my husband’s occasional experiments in imbibing terrible coffee out of
desperation in the capital (unless he was in proximity of the renowned Monmouth
or Flat White).
Then slowly, the Capital opened itself up to me. I don’t
know what changed… were there good cafés present all along and was I just not
attuned to them? Or did a café revolution take place? Perhaps a combination of
both.
I think the financial crisis and UK recession contributed in
part to the growth of the London café scene. With people working longer hours
for less money in an unstable job market, many sought out an alternative
lifestyle and revenue source; small-footprint hospitality is always a popular choice for a first time business with reasonably low start-up costs, often funded by severance pay-outs.
Customers too had less disposable income to spend on expensive dinners, but still desired the social aspects of “going out”; downsizing expenditure by going to cafés is a cheaper, yet often just as emotionally satisfying, option than fine dining.
And maybe Londonites finally “got it” when it comes to
coffee. Burnt milk and dirty grinds just don’t cut it. If you’re going to spend
your hard earned money on something it had better be good.
Thus I commenced my voyage of discovery of London’s cafes,
buoyed by the prospect of a delicious slice of cake at the end of the journey.
I live around the eastern side of London, so most of my visits are concentrated
around my local areas. I like the grittiness and rawness of the East End, the
lack of pretense, people's willingness to experiment with new ideas. These are the
places and the people who make the city a vibrant place to live and work.
So please leave the likes of Starbucks to those who don’t
care about taste or quality, and support small local business who pay their
taxes in this country and really need your patronage.
