Image by Phoebe Ferris-Rotman

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

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Image by Phoebe Ferris-Rotman

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

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Image by Phoebe Ferris-Rotman

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

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Image by Sébastien Cevey / theefer

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. The Wire magazine hold a monthly series of events here, called ‘The Wire Salon’, which consist of talks, panel discussions, film screenings and DJ sets. 

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 home (or three) in E8.

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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

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Image by Roomie Rock

It’s small. It doesn’t take bookings. It has a maximum table size of six. You can only pay by cash. It certainly isn’t cheap at £15 per pizza (although wine by the glass is a reasonable £3.50). But it has an incredible rustic charm – as if the look has just been thrown together, although, of course, that couldn’t be further from the truth – and the pizzas are the thinnest and crispiest in town. Stretching the definition of a pizza to its limits. 

This location is (at least) its third incarnation, after Dray Walk just off Brick Lane and then a temporary space just round the corner on Sclater Street, so hopefully they won’t move again any time soon. Each venue had the same signature Story ‘look’ – a look that comes from the owners and their unique taste and style. In fact, there was originally a Story design/home/concept store in Spitalfields from where I once bought an organic leather cleaner/food which I still use on my sofa today. Sadly that store has now gone and we are left with just the Story Deli for our Story fix, but the natural, organic approach has been kept.

Certified 100% organically grown ingredients go to make the pizzas the price they are, I suppose, but, when the Chorizo, Pumpkin and Taleggio pizza tastes as good as it does a little treat every now and then is fine, isn’t it?

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Story Deli | Snacks, Restaurants (Italian) | per pizza € 15
3 Redchurch Street, E2 7DJ | East
12:00 – 22:30 daily

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Image by Tommy / Violet

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 community thanks to The Wilton Way Cafe (go and try the fabulous avocado on sourdough toast with lemon and chilli), the recently opened branch of 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 the great flour-less chocolate cake or the sticky treat that is the fresh ginger and molasses cake. But if there isn’t time for that, a friend of mine swears by the Salted Caramel cupcakes

In addition to making cakes, Violet herself (Claire Ptak) is a food stylist and food writer and she has recently written and had published ‘The Whoopie Pie Book‘. It can only be onwards and upwards for Violet from now on.

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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

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Image by Andrew Sidford

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, the lot – 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

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Image by Andrew Sidford

Victoria Park Village (which obviously isn’t 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 an great 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, 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

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Image by Matt Bramford

The Sun Inn is my local so if you do decide to go there, you’ll probably find me in a corner. It doesn’t look much from the outside and Bethnal Green Road isn’t the most affluent street in London, but don’t let that put you off.

Inside there’s a warm greeting from the trendy bar staff and a small selection of candle-lit tables. I usually rush to the back where there’s a comfy sofa – or try and grab the big table, also at the back, if I’m with a bigger group of friends. It gets super busy on Friday and Saturday evenings, and if all the tables are taken there isn’t much standing room (unless you stand outside, which isn’t advisable when it’s freezing!)

The pub offers a minimal selection of snacks, which could do with a bit of work. I don’t often eat there but if I do, the antipasti selection is good as an appetiser, and daily hotpots are a treat. They do have a great rotating selection of ales, though.

Midweek it’s my favourite place to catch up with friends and enjoy a (fairly) quiet drink. The staff come to your table to replenish the drinks, too – even at weekends. The music is usually a mix of soul and funk, at a volume that accommodates chat. The only problem with this place, I find, is that it’s so hard to leave!

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The Sun Inn | Bars, Snacks | A pint £ 3.90
441 Bethnal Green Road, E2 0AN | East | +442077290429
Mon – Wed & Sun 12:00 – 00:00, Thu – Sat 12:00 – 01:00

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Image by Matt Bramford

Whenever I’m not at the Albion ‘caff’, which is most of the time, I long to be there. It has a great atmosphere, delicious food, home-made bread and a well-stocked shop supplying traditional English goods.

As part of Terence Conran’s redevelopment of the building (including the fabulous Boundary Rooftop bar for summer and the Boundary restaurant for winter) the Albion café opened to huge applause, I’ve never once been disappointed. Serving a great range of traditional English food with modern flair, the menu includes my firm favourites bangers and mash and fish and chips, as well as a huge range of stews and salads. I prefer sitting outside, but in the winter months its cosy enough inside without being stuffy. Crockery and cutlery is sourced from vintage markets, the service is impeccable, and the prices are reasonable for what you get.

My ideal time to visit is Saturday mornings, when delicious breakfasts/brunches are available, or Sunday lunchtimes when they serve side orders of pork crackling that I crave for an entire week. It can get quite busy so be prepared to wait, but while you do you can peruse the cold desserts in the open-plan shop.

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Albion Café | Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (British) | Mains £ 10
2-4 Boundary Street, Shoreditch, E2 7DD | East | +442077291051
08:00 – late daily

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