It might not have been the original coffee bar in Shoreditch (that honour has to go to the now defunct Bean) and it doesn’t sell the best coffee in the area (that honour definitely goes to the Prufrock team serving out of Present) but the Old Shoreditch Station has always been – and still is in my eyes – the best coffee bar in Shoreditch. 

Actually, calling it just a coffee bar is wrong. It is so much more than that. Coffee. Muffins. Whiskey. Art. DJs. It has it all.

In the day it is a cafe serving very good coffee, cakes and organic sandwiches from the nearby Grocery, but as darkness falls the Station turns into a bar serving whisky, wine and beer. If you catch it on the right night there might be an exhibition opening or a product launch or a gig. While at the weekends (when it can get very busy) you will most likely get a DJ. Oh, and during normal shop opening times you get access through to the next door fashion emporium no-one. 

When I had a studio on Hoxton Square popping in to the Station was a morning ritual. The Lattes and muffins I had on an almost daily basis might not have helped with the waistline, but it always set me up for the day ahead. Now, sadly I am not close enough to go as often as I use to, but when I am in the area, and have time, I still pop in. 

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Old Shoreditch Station | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Latte £ 2.20
1 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DA | East | +442077295188
Mon – Tue 08:00 – 21:00, Wed -Sat 08:00 – 01:00, Sun 09:00 – 21:00

Oto means ‘noise’ or ‘music’ in Japanese and that is exactly what you get at this amazing, innovative venue. By day it is a mild-mannered café serving a selection of teas, coffees, organic fruit juices, Devon and Breton cider, wines, Japanese snacks, Sake, Plum Wine and Japanese Whisky but then, when the lights go out and the cafe closes for a couple of house for the soundchecks, Oto turns into the home of the experimental musician and easily fulfills its stated aim of ‘providing a home for creative new music that exists outside of the mainstream’.

Past performers include Yoko Ono, London Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Marshall Allen, Matthew Herbert and, amazingly and thrillingly, The Sun Ra Arkestra who consider Cafe Oto to be their spiritual London home. Some of the bigger names mean larger fees, but most gigs are around £10 entrance fee, but check the website first as the venue is small and gigs regularly sell out in advance.

Cafe Oto forms one point of the Dalston Jazz Triangle. The other two points being filled by the jazz daddy The Vortex and the newcomer Servant Jazz Quarters.

These three venues are only about 500 yards apart and between them they cover everything from the folky side of jazz (SJQ), to the more traditional approach (Vortex) and into the avant garde (Oto). Jazz has definitely found a (cool) home (or three) in E8. in fact, The Guardian recently went to find out more about Oto as Italian Vogue had named it as the coolest venue in Britian!!

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Cafe Oto | Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks | Entrance from € 7
18-22 Ashwin Street,E8 3DL | East
Mon – Fri 09:30 – 17:30, Sat – Sun 10:30 – 17:30, gigs from 20:00

Walking into The Bridge sets you back a century perhaps, but nothing gets you ready for the time warp you will encounter upon entering the second floor. It’s as if you’ve walked into an 18th century boudoir.

Navigating around mismatched and opulent sofas, throne-like armchairs and purposeful dim lighting, The Bridge makes a perfect setting for some dirty gossiping over a glass of wine or some clean fun, proved by a becoming cosy literary platform for my last bookclub meeting.

Although the food is minimal there are plenty of sweet snacks to cast your eyes upon.

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The Bridge | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Bottle of wine £ 19
15 Kingsland Rd, E8 4 | East
Mon – Wed 12:00 – 01:00, Thu – Sat 12:00 – 02:00, Sun 12:00 – 00:00

This Brick Lane (check Brick Lane article) staple has been around for years, and serves as a remnant of the area’s Jewish past. While the bakery is not somewhere you would want to hang out long for – the bright white lights give it a clinical feel – the bagels are ridiculously cheap and very tasty, so it’s worth a visit.

A bagel and cream cheese will only set you back a mere £1 and they are made the proper way, by boiling then baking, creating the dense chewy consistency which is so more-ish. This makes a much welcomed change from most bagel store chains, who essentially serve bread rolls with a hole in the middle. Other fillings include smoked salmon, chopped herring and hot salt beef. Donuts and pastries are also made fresh daily.

Service is super quick and it’s open 24 hours, so after a night out on Brick Lane you can wander in for a bite, and find throngs of like-minded party-goers doing the same.

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Beigel Bake | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Bagel cream cheese £ 1.00
159 Brick Lane | East
24 hours daily

Brick Lane offers a multitude of choice in terms of bars and nightlife but Casa Blue sticks out, not least because of all the fairy lights and candles glowing from within.

A lacquered wooden panel of peacocks is hung next to a watercolour painting of a naval fleet. 50′s memorabilia is plastered wearily to the wall. While the predominantly red kitsch bric-a-brac decor means your eyes don’t know where to settle, the kooky collection of plastic chandeliers, hanging baubles and blinking strings of light make a unique setting.

Even though the music ranges anywhere from the Beatles to Manu Chau, the tunes are familiar and well-chosen. There are comfy plus sofas and yummy cocktails. Food is also available. While the menu is limited, the house specialty comes in platter form – international mezze for two or more people. For only £5 each, sharing platters come with a selection of hot and cold tapas and you can choose Mediterranean, Indian or Greek cuisine.

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Casa Blue | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks | Cocktail £ 6.00
228 Brick Lane | East
Sun – Thu 12:00 – 01:00, Fri – Sat 12:00 – 03:00

During the day people bring their laptops or books and work, read and drink coffee sprawled over one of the many mismatched sofas or lounge chairs. At night tea candles are lit and hot drinks are swapped for alcoholic drinks as people unwind and meet friends in what was once the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane (check the Brick Lane article). In summertime, people swamp to the outside picnic benches and the alleyway, though there is always a lovely cosy feel inside.

The boho and versatile venue opens at a very early 06:00 for breakfast and soups, jacket potatoes and sandwiches are on offer for lunch and dinner. Live music attracts a younger crowd with indie bands on Tuesday and jazz on Wednesday. Bands play in the smaller room at the back on Sunday and a dj spins tunes on Friday and Saturday.

Cocktails made with fresh fruit are available on the weekend and all year round you can grab a burger or corn on the cob from the grill stand outside. Tables and benches outside in front are great for people watching or smoking.

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Café 1001 | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks, Restaurants (intern.)
1 Dray walk, 91 Brick Lane | East | +442072479679
Mon – Sat 06:00 – 00:00, Sun 06:00 – 23:30

Broadway Market on a Saturday is a snap shot of what life in Hackney is all about. A true mix of styles and cultures, young and old, traditional and new. It is a microcosm of what living in a truly global city is all about. 

Broadway Market is not a large street yet the market on Saturdays see this street crammed with life. The weekly stalls attract the crowds, but the shops, the pubs, the restaurants and cafes all join in. It is what I want a weekly market to be. Lively, but offering something for everyone. Go for the shopping, stay for the people watching!

The market is primarily a specialist food market where you can get organic meat, fruit and veg alongside fresh fish, cakes, bread, cheese, sausages… but you can also get vintage clothes, furniture, hand made brooches, bike repairs/spares or hit the shops instead of the stalls and get art books at Artwords, fabulous coffee at Climpsons, all your sewing needs at Our Patterned Hand or a proper East End pie and mash at the historic Cooke’s. The choice really is that varied.

Personally, I always make sure I pick up at least one samosa from the Gujarati Rasoi stall as they are simply the best I have ever tasted. But be aware, if you only get one you will have to go back and get another, and at £ 1 each why not?

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Broadway Market | Bars, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants (Various)
Broadway Market,E8 4PH | East
Sat 09:00 – 17:00

When you think of Danish design and hygge cafes you do not think of Hackney Downs, but that might soon change as Chase & Sorensen is a Danish modern furniture shop and cafe on a very non-stylish junction in Hackney Downs. That combination implies Chase & Sorensen shouldn’t really work, but somehow it isn’t just working but actually thriving. 

The collection of modern design classics are sourced directly from Denmark every few weeks which has meant Chase & Sorensen are very competitively priced. They claim on their site to ‘provide customers with reasonably priced, well-crafted and aesthetically on-point pieces of furniture’ and while they seem to be doing that very well indeed it is the inclusion of the Scandinavian coffee bar that make this place a step ahead.

The seating is the shop and vice versa. You are eating and drinking on the chairs, the sofas and the tables they want you to buy. Be that a £ 800.00 Edvard Kindt-Larsen teak sofa or a £ 300.00 Børge Christoffersen occasional chair. And I like that. I like it a lot.

Added to that they are using the walls of the shop as a gallery and have quite a few reasonably priced smaller items such as Royal Copenhagen vases, Fog & Mørup lamps, teak mirrors and vintage leather bags. One of the best decision they have made, however, is to sell the wonderful Cinnamon buns from local baker Violet.

Design classics and good coffee and cakes – a winning combination.

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Chase & Sorensen | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks | Latte £ 2.20
238B Dalston Lane,E8 1LQ | East | +442085335523
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 17:00, Sat 08:00 – 18:00, Sun 10:00 – 17:00

Violet has had a stall on Broadway Market for along as I have known it and the stall invariably sells out every week. Luckily, that success has meant that alongside the weekly stall Violet now has a permanent home just around the corner from the market on Wilton Way.

Wilton Way is itself an interesting place. The sort of non-high street that usually and unfortunately ends up with as a row of closed shops. Not here though. Wilton Way is now home to a thriving little community thanks to The Wilton Way Cafe (go and try the fabulous avocado on sourdough toast with lemon and chilli), Borough Wines, Toppers of Hackney, the other side of the pillow and, of course, Violet itself. 

Violet are famous for their cupcakes – and rightly so, they are delicious – but the new home has meant there is time to sit, relax and watch the world go by as you have a coffee or tea and indulge in a piece of chocolate cake or the sticky treat that is the fresh ginger and molasses cake. My favourite however, has to be the gorgeous cinnamon buns, but the quiches are great too…

The cafe is small, very small, small enough to watch the bakers go about their business, but there are seats out front, in the courtyard garden or upstairs.

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Violet | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Cupcake € 0.90
47 Wilton Way,E8 3ED | East
Tue – Fri 07:30 – 18:00, Sat 09:30 – 18:00, Sun 09:30 – 17:00

Victoria Park Village (obviously not a real village) is a little leafy secret in East London on the edge of Victoria Park. Consisting of just the two shopping streets, Lauriston Road and Victoria Park Road, this ‘village’ feels somehow different. Perhaps it is the proximity to the park itself (which is Britain’s oldest public park, built in 1842!) or the lack of through traffic, but whatever it is, it is definitely working.

House prices around the village are now sky high and the shops do tend to have an upmarket feel to them, but there is a very varied selection of (mostly) independent shops, pubs and restaurants. 

The Royal Inn On The Park has an excellent selection of draught beers and is packed for the very good Sunday lunch. The Lauriston has DJs and excellent pizzas to go with their beers. The Empress Of India is a fantastic restaurant open for brunch onwards, serving meat from the award-winning Ginger Pig butchers across the road. For fish you can go to Jonathan Norris Fishmonger or if you don’t want to cook it yourself head across to the Fish House for a good old fashioned fish and chips! 

Coffee, cakes and snacks are to be found at Elbows Cafe, the lovely Amandine Café and Loafing; excellent Vietnamese can be had at Namo; Su Sazzagoni has traditional Sardinian food; Bottle Apostle excellent wines; The Deli Downstairs is great for fresh bread, cheese and hand made pies; while Haus makes sure your own home is tastefully decorated and furnished. Lovely.

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Victoria Park Village | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants (Various)
Lauriston Road,E9 7HJ | East
Depending on location