While I was running some errands ahead of a work trip I'm taking later this week, I passed the new Store St Espresso coffee bar on Bishopsgate, just opposite Liverpool Street station. The cafe only opened a week ago today so of course I had to check it out.
The original Gentlemen Baristas has been one of my favourite coffee shops in my neighbourhood — Bermondsey and Borough — for over seven years. While spending a lot more time closer to home over the past few years, I've been stopping by more often, usually to get a piccolo to go. If you like your coffee shops to combine cosiness with dapperness, this is the place to go.
The original Rosslyn Coffee has been one of my favourite London coffee shops since I first visited in 2018, thanks to its consistently excellent coffee, warm hospitality and gorgeous design. It's through Rosslyn that I discovered artist Melisa Dora, whose mugs and other ceramics adorn my shelves at home, and it was also thanks to them that I first heard about Saint Nine Coffee, now also a favourite of mine.
What with one thing and another, my 2021 end-of-year round-ups have been slightly delayed, such that it is now already 2022. In this post, I'm highlighting my five favourite novels that I read in 2021, as well as five more that almost made the shortlist.
