5 of the best London regional cafés
From Scandinavian fika to Italian espresso bars, we take you on a tour of London's best regionally inspired cafés
When Allpress set up shop in the UK for the first time in 2010 (originally in a small premises in Shoreditch, now anchored in a rather bigger one in Dalston), the plan was to bring some of its Antipodean fussiness about coffee to the burgeoning London coffee scene. The roaster – originally set up in Auckland, New Zealand in 1986, and breaking Australia at the turn of the millennium – has always been first and foremost an espresso specialist. Its Shoreditch site is the kind of compact espresso bar you're likely to find gracing an Auckland backstreet, while its bigger Dalston cafe and roastery serves up brunch, lunch and pastries.
You might not be able to tell from the outside, but Frequency is all about authentic coffee and small plates from Venezuela. Drop in for an espresso; stay for home-made cachapas made by owner Justo Tripier’s fair hands – they’re Venezuelan roadside snacks, similar to arepas. The café hosts regular band nights, as well as tapas and wine evenings.
Photograph by Jonathan Baron
Covent Garden café The Black Penny is named in homage to the olde-world coffee shops of Westminster, where entry cost a penny, and people would gather to do everything from casually shooting the breeze to, er, casually and somewhat inadvertently inventing the ballot system. Interiors are all styled up to resemble the 19th century, and coffee comes by way of roaster Alchemy.
You can't match a proper Italian espresso bar, and when Shot's Fulham location isn't dishing out small plates and aperitivo drinks, you can dip in and out for an espresso or a macchiato at the counter (or a cappuccino – although if it’s after 11am, you can consider yourself thoroughly un-Italian). It's also a deli, and boasts a cracking wine list.
If you've not heard of it, the Swedish tradition of fika is simply about taking time in the afternoon to sit and drink a coffee or two, with a slice of cake or a sandwich. If that sounds like your kind of thing, get down to Scandi Kitchen in Great Titchfield Street, where alongside your coffee, you can order a smorgasbord to share, meatballs, or a Nordic-style open-faced sandwich on rye bread.
