News — Local Heroes

Local Heroes: St John's Soup Kitchen Anniversaries of events always seem to spark off reflection in us, often bringing up certain unexpected emotions but also reminding us of how far we have come since that time. We’re all currently experiencing our “one year since the first lock down” anniversary. A whole year of disrupted work, not seeing friends and family, masks and new rules. We’re all sick of it now, of course we all want to go back to normal, whatever that means. Reflecting back on what this past year has meant for us as a small business is hard,...

Baban's Naan Shop Baban’s Naan shop is a Blackstock Road institution. They’re pretty busy all the time, but on Friday and Saturday afternoons / evenings you will see hoards of Finsbury Park locals queuing up for their naans and wraps. They work so hard! Especially in summer when the heat in there is stifling. Their falafel wraps are amazing. Hummus, falafel, salad, pickles, all the sauces. For less than a fiver. They make the falafels and kibbeh themselves from scratch. You know it’s going to be a good day when you get to sample a new batch when we collect...

Bread By Bike - Kickstarter and Expansion We’re extremely happy to hear that our friends and long standing sourdough bread suppliers, Bread by Bike, have successfully reached their Kickstarter goal and will be going forward with their expansion. They are taking over the unit next door to the bakery and will be turning this into a proper café space. This expansion and extra space will allow them to focus on expanding their baked goods and food offer. We cannot wait to visit.

Sustainable and Ethical Coffee We have served Climpson & Sons coffee at the café ever since we opened in 2017. Our first encounter was at London Coffee Festival where their “The Fields” espresso stood out among the crowd of many many other coffees. This coffee was probably the most interesting espresso we have ever tasted and led us to get in touch with them about wholesale supply. From day one they have been fully supportive of everything we do, continually offering training and further development for our staff. Not to mention throwing the best parties. Nitro espresso martini on tap?...

Hippy Bread For the last two years we have been using Bread By Bike’s Sourdough and Hippy loaves for our brunch dishes. We also stock their smaller loaves for customers to buy and are familiar with the scrum of addicted sourdough fiends wanting to get their bread fix on Saturday and Sunday mornings. We already know this bread is good. Finally, the rest of the world has caught on. The team attended The World Bread Awards last week and won four category prizes as well as the overall prize for their Hippy Bread. This is an amazing achievement and couldn’t...