Back in the summer of 2018, which now feels like a lifetime ago, I took the Tube up to Tottenham Hale for the launch party for Daniel's 'Succulent Lover' art exhibition at a coffee shop then called Craving Coffee. It was a great night for art, tacos and cocktails, but I arrived too late for coffee, and have been meaning to go back ever since. I finally made it last weekend, although it's now called Craving, and has recently moved across the road in the industrial estate where it's located.
Intermission Coffee is a great name for a coffee shop that opened during the coronavirus pandemic: who among us hasn't felt, at some point, as though the whole of the last year has been an extended intermission while we wait to get our lives back?
Most of my Caffeine Chronicles reviews are about speciality coffee shops I've discovered recently. Not so with Black Swan Yard Coffee, which is one of the closest coffee shops to my home and one that I've visited even more frequently while working from home during lockdown. Somehow, though, writing about the Bermondsey coffee spot has always eluded me, even as it's changed and adapted over the months and years, so I thought it was high time for a post.
I've been quite quiet on the blogging front of late, mainly because as you will have seen if you follow me on Twitter, I'm starting a new job in a new industry this week, and it's been a hectic few weeks handing over and signing off. But I had a few free days this week, which gave me time to visit Good as Gold, a new speciality coffee shop in beautiful Brockley, south-east London.
I've been frequenting Ozone Coffee Roasters' original London coffee shop, near the Old Street roundabout, since 2012, and the Kiwi roaster's second London cafe in Bethnal Green has been on my to-visit list for a while. On Friday, I took advantage of a sunny day off work to divert my daily walk via Ozone II; although London is currently locked down, the cafe is open for coffee and food to take away.
After a cold, rainy January in London, 1 February was a gorgeous sunny day. For once, I'd picked a good day to take off work. Of course, with the UK in lockdown, my opportunities for fun were somewhat limited, but I did get back on my bike for the first time in a few weeks, and cycle to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Hackney Wick, a straightforward ride along Cycle Superhighway 2. I wasn't planning on making a coffee stop, but when I was about to head home, I happened upon The Roasting Shed's Hackney Bridge location. I knew the espresso bar was in the area but had managed not to add it to my Google Map.
Although London is in lockdown for the foreseeable, we are at least still allowed to go out for exercise once per day and despite the cold, grey weather, I've been going for a walk, run or cycle ride every day. Well, as I'm still a fair-weather cyclist, I've mainly been walking and running, which does limit the places within a reasonable distance. Much as I love running west along the river from Tower Bridge, close to where I live, I have done the same loop about 150 times in the past year and so I've been looking for some other options.
