Cafe Crawl in London

Today I spent most of the day walking.  Walking the streets of London, and more specifically the area of Soho in London, where there are a number of great little cafes.  To reinforce my comments on Europe from previous posts, it is just so different over here from North America.  For one, the place is very crowded.  As many can attest who know me, I am not a big fans of crowds.  But over here, you really don't have any choice, as there is nowhere to escape the crowd.  Things are far more compact and much more densely populated.  The cafes over here are tiny!  Even the 500 SF of space that Transcend occupies in its coffee bar is massive compared to most of the cafes that I visited today.  And yet these little cafes push through significant volume day in, and day out.  So on one hand, it makes me say hmmm as to why we at Transcend can't do more business on a Saturday for example.  Yet on the other hand, I know that the mentality of the average Canadian doesn't really jive with the tight and cramped spaces that I visited today.  Canadians need there personal space, after all.

The day started off with some delightful coffee at the Squaremile Coffee Roastery.  After a nice visit, I was off, map in hand on the tube to the Tottenham Court Road station.  I popped up from the underground to find myself in the hustle and bustle of downtown London, where people were scurrying about, trying to get lunch before heading back to their offices.  I made my way, a bit like a hound on the scent of a winged fox, towards my first stop Monmouth Coffee.  I didn't quite know where I was going, but eventually I did find my way there.  Life would have been so much easier if I had turned on my 3G function on the iPhone, but I wasn't up for dishing $500 over to Fido for 5 minutes of data streaming.  I found the little cafe, full to the rafters with customers on Monmouth Street, and popped in and found a seat in this pill boxed sized cubbyhole of a table and ordered a single espresso.  I know, we in Edmonton always serve up doubles, but while in London, I thought I would follow suit and order singles, and also follow Josh's explicit instructions to drink singles.  Having quaffed down the espresso, I started to Chat it up with the barista who was literally breathing down my neck, as he was so close to my seat.  He was a Kiwi, and I quickly found out that he has a friend in Edmonton, who is a great barista.  Without hesitation I pulled out my card and asked him to pass it on to his friend in Edmonton, to call me about a job.  I thought it just a tad bit cool that I could be recruiting potential baristas in London of all places.  After that, he introduced me to Anita Le Roy, his boss, whom I had a delightful conversation with for some time.

From there I continued my awkward search for the next cafe on my list, Milkbar.  After some walking, and turning, and returning, I eventually found the cafe and wandered in for some coffee.  A fellow named Tim waited on me, and I ordered up a macchiato.  What was served to me, was actually quite surprising as the drink came in a shot glass and was barely an ounce.  I seriously tasty bit of coffee it was too, but BIT is the key word in this sentence, as it was small even by Transcend standards.  It was the thing most striking to me today - how small all of the drinks were.  Reinforcing for me the request and suggestion made by Anette and James the night previous, that we should cease and desist serving 16oz drinks at Transcend Garneau, and make our largest offering a 12oz drink.  After today, I am giving this suggestion some seriousl thought.

Milkbar behind me, I ventured forth to find a fish and chips spot to grab some lunch.  After 1 hour of wandering about Soho, up and down Polland street, I gave up, as I just couldn't find the little shop called Chippy's (found out is now called Union Golden).  So I stopped into a pub, The Endurance for some Bacon and Liver.  Having armed my system with protien and fats to counteract the impending overdose of caffeine, I made my way to the cafe Flat White, owned by the same fellow that owns Milkbar, which seemed fully staffed by Ausies by the way.  Here I was treated to the most intense espresso I think I have ever had.  From what Josh tells me, they are pulling nearly 35 grams of coffee into a one ounce ristretto.  It wasn't astringent or bitter and had great flavour, but it was Strong!

Now feeling the effects of much caffeine in my viens, I made my way up to one of the newest shops in Soho, namely Kaffeine.  This little cafe has only been open for 5 weeks and is serving up Squaremile coffee (as is Milkbar and Flat White).  I had a great talk with Peter, the owner of Kaffeine and was served up an even smaller macchiato than I had been served at Milkbar.  It was very tasty, and the shop was immaculate.  Peter's background is in hospitality, and it shows as his new cafe screams quality and the highest in standards of service.  Now thoroughly caffeinated, I was buzzing a bit, Peter offered me a fresh mint leaf tea, which he called a Maraco Whiskey.  It was simply fresh mint leaves steeped in hot water for a bit, with a teaspoon of sugar.  And I must admit, even as non tea guy, this drink was delicious and refreshing, exactly fitting the description which Peter promised.  When in London, you must pay Peter and Kaffeine a visit.

After all of that, I made my way back to East London and Squaremile on an overstuffed and sweaty tube.  The evening finished off perfectly with a meal and great company in Anette and James.  Sorry for the longish post, but I thought you might enjoy reading about my day, as much as I did living it.  Cheers for now.