I was distressed, the first time I stepped in Szelence. I had just had an argument and I had been rudely insulted. I needed kindness more than my coffee.

That’s when I saw the cute tables of Szelence Café with an inviting sign about finding your home there.

Szelence is the surname of the family who lives here: “a family of people who love each other, work hard and know how to laugh”. Anna Szelence and her siblings opened a restaurant and event location in the house where their grandparents had settled in the ’50s, and where she was born.

Her parents loved to invite people over and Anna started to bake for them. Their house became almost a spontaneous meeting point for the neighbourhood. As Anna tells me this story, a variety of people comes and goes from the bistrò. They know each other, it’s the place where they remember what you order, which reminds me of when I used to buy bread for my grandparents in the village where I grew up.

The basement is full of paintings: “we organise workshops and host birthday parties and weddings. We built a community inside our family house”.

Their daily menus, published online, always includes a vegetarian and a vegan option.

Anna made me a very foamy cappuccino, even with sugar-free almond milk, which is very hard to whip, and her kindness made me a returning client.