The Caffeine Chronicles: Ozone Review

The first part of my Shoreditch espresso bar double-whammy was my review of Shoreditch Grind. But the real reason I went to Old Street on Saturday was to check out a relatively new Kiwi coffee bar and cafe, Ozone Coffee Roasters, which sounded amazing. Not only do they roast their own coffee and provide advice on the more hardcore of brewing techniques, but they also do yummy-sounding breakfast, brunch and lunch. I had already eaten when I got there, but I had plenty of room for my second macchiato of the afternoon.

Ozone Coffee Roasters: check out those cakes!

Ozone is on Leonard Street, a quiet street off City Road, the southern branch of the Old Street roundabout. If you're eating, you can sit at one of the tables, but I sat at one of the long benches in the window while I awaited my double macchiato. 

Unusually (for 2012), the barista avoided latte art in favour of a perfect, smooth white cap to my coffee. There was, perhaps, slightly more milk than I like in my drink, but this was probably for the best, given that I was already on my third coffee of the day. The coffee itself tasted smooth and although I'm not good at picking out the flavour notes in coffee, this one seemed to be pretty complex.

An unusually unadorned macchiato

As well as the tempting food menus, Ozone also offers an even more tempting array of pastries and cakes, which sit imploringly next to the till. I almost caved and bought a brownie but it was a hot afternoon and I wasn't very hungry. 

Ozone is a little quieter and a little less consciously hip than Shoreditch Grind, on a Saturday afternoon, anyway. It's also much less of a freelancer hangout — there wasn't a MacBook in sight. I plan to go back very soon to give brunch a try: the prawn and prosciutto pappardelle sounds great, and the sourdough toast with minted mushy peas and extra-virgin olive oil makes a refreshingly different toast choice.

Ozone Coffee Roasters. 11 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4AQ (Tube: Old Street). Website.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Caravan Review

Just a fortnight ago, I was excited about the opening of Brewhouse on York--the first decent espresso bar in King's Cross. Now there are two places to get a great macchiato in N1 without having to go to Islington because Caravan's King's Cross branch opened last weekend. At this rate, Costa et al. will be ousted in no time. Well, maybe not, but long may this trend continue!

I've been to the original Caravan in Exmouth Market a few times, but although the menu has always looked very tempting, I've never eaten there. Their espresso is very good, though, even if it can take time to flag down a member of staff to server you a take-out coffee. 

The new branch is on Granary Square, next to the art students and across the canal from eat.st (round the back of King's Cross station, for non-locals). It's a shame that they aren't using any of the outdoor space in the square at the moment, but the inside is light and airy with plenty of sunlight streaming in. 

Caravan specialises in casual, creative all-day dining and I'm going to have trouble deciding what to order first from the general and brunch menus (fried chicken and waffles with verjus syrup, perhaps?).

L: Brewin' up at Caravan King's Cross. R: roasting kit (top), the restaurant (bottom)

Today, though, I only had time to grab a coffee to go, so I ordered my usual double macchiato. The coffee counter is at the back of the restaurant, next to the large pieces of roasting kit, because they roast their own coffee--three to four times per week, they tell me--and large sacks, which may be full of coffee or may just be for show because the building used to be a granary, don't you know? 

I took my coffee out to the square and sat soaking up some sunshine and dipping my toes in the dancing fountains. I enjoyed my macchiato--the espresso tasted rich and very smooth, and it came with my preferred amount of milk (i.e. not much).

Double macchiato at Caravan

It's good to know that there are now two purveyors of fine espresso within five minutes' walk of my desk at work, and Caravan also sells bags of beans and/or ground coffee. This could be handy because although I prefer to get my beans from Prufrock, it's a 20-minute walk and I don't always have time. Of course, the yummy-sounding food on Caravan's menu means I will probably be going back long before I run out of ground coffee!

Caravan. 1 Granary Square, London, N1C 4AA (Tube: King's Cross). Website.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Shoreditch Grind Review

There are a whole bunch of independent espresso bars in Shoreditch that are on my to-caffeinate list. They're just that bit too far from King's Cross for me to stop by on my lunch break, and I'm not often in that part of town at coffee o'clock at the weekend. On Saturday, I decided it was time to rectify this and headed off to check out Ozone Coffee Roasters. But when the bus deposited me outside Shoreditch Grind on Saturday, it seemed careless not to check them out.

Welcome to Shoreditch Grind. I particularly like the stools!

Shoreditch Grind had a very New York feel to it, which, given the accents of the baristas, may make sense. From their sign, you might wonder if it's actually a small cinema, mais non. Inside, it's MacBook central, even on a Saturday, as befits Silicon Roundabout. You can either perch at one of the custom stools or sit at one of the communal tables or even one of the benches outside if the weather is as nice as it was on Saturday. The decor is fairly standard for indie coffee bars, but with a few nice extra touches, like the stools; I also liked the low-hanging lights and the white-painted exposed brick walls.

Macchiato with a persistent heart

As for the coffee, it was great. It's their own blend, apparently, and roasted to their specification. I ordered my usual double macchiato and went to perch in the sunlight. The fact that even when I had almost finished my coffee, the latte art heart was still perfect is a testament to the milk foaming and frothing skills of the barista. The coffee itself was rich and velvety, with that rare almost chocolatey aftertaste I love so much. They also serve some really tasty-looking cakes and pastries — I was very tempted by the brownies — and, unusually for coffee bars, wine and cocktails.

Yummy cakes too...

Overall, I was very impressed. I could imagine Shoreditch Grind being a great place for freelancers and workers-from-home to get a few hours of work done. And it's a lovely place to sit and read or write while caffeinating of a weekend, especially on sunny days when the hue glass windows let a whole load of natural sunlight. They're also open on Sundays, which is surprisingly rare among London indie espresso bars. In short, their tagline 'the coffee of champions' seems perfectly accurate.

Shoreditch Grind. 213 Old Street, London, EC1V 9NR (Tube: Old Street). Website.

Bourne Again

Surprisingly, given my penchant for action/spy/political/conspiracy thrillers and my liking for Matt Damon, my history with the Bourne films is far from complete. I saw The Bourne Identity once on DVD but I was also surfing the intertubes at the same time and didn't pay enough attention. I think I actually saw Bourne #3, The Bourne Ultimatum, first and I've since watched parts of it on several other occasions. I've never seen the second film, The Bourne Supremacy. I intended to watch Bourne #2 before seeing a preview of the latest film, The Bourne Legacy, this morning but I didn't get round to it. I did read Vulture's five things to remember about the other movies post, though, which helped a little.

I was slightly concerned about the lack of Matt Damon, but from his CV, Jeremy Renner looks like he's been gearing up to this role. He was good in The Hurt Locker and further cut his chops helping out Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Plus I like Rachel Weisz and although she did also appear in The Mummy and her latest film, 360, hasn't been popular with the critics, she generally has quite good taste in movies. There may be some spoilers below, especially for the first three films, but I would suggest that a sequential viewing of the films makes for more interesting and less confusing viewing. 

Anyway, on to The Bourne Legacy. It isn't really a sequel to Ultimatum; the events unfold at about the same time, so we see poor old Paddy Considine getting shot in Waterloo station again. Old events and conversations are given a new twist in the new film. I like this as a narrative device: watching a scene or a conversation for a second time, with a whole new meaning or interpretation based on new information. 

For much of the opening third of the film, we see Aaron Cross (Renner), hiking across some seriously snowy mountains in Alaska, fighting off wolves and taking his green and blue pills, which allow him to retain his amazing physical and mental abilities, respectively. These scenes are interspersed with shots of various CIA dudes arguing with some guy from a national research association (Edward Norton) about the government black ops programmes that allowed the genetic modification of ordinary guys into hyper-strong, hyper-intelligent killing machines. Such as Bourne. And Cross, of course.

The problems with Jason Bourne (see Bournes #1 to #3) have prompted Norton's character Byer to close down all of these programmes ASAP and get rid of the agents. Most of the agents grudgingly agree to switch over to a new kind of pill, which, of course, promptly kills them off. Cross, however, proves harder to wipe out and manages to elude assassination-by-exploding-drone on several occasions. 

Meanwhile, the labs responsible for creating the pills that keep the agents super-human and those that developed the technique that allowed certain agents (including Cross) to keep their skills permanently, even without pills, need shutting down too. Even the nice lady scientist Marta (Weisz) who carried out Cross's regular check-ups and who gave Cross perma-strength, although not perma-intelligence. (This is a shame because Cross's pre-programme alter ego had a very low IQ.)

This somewhat complex and lengthy set-up complete, the rest of movie proceeds as a fairly standard chase film, as Cross and Marta dash across the country and oversees to Manila, which is where the rooftop chase scene pictured in the trailer takes place. Meanwhile, Byer et al sit and mutter, "Curses! Foiled again!" and some unexplained parts of the first three films are somewhat elucidated — for those people who put more effort into watching the earlier films than me, at least.

I came out of the film thinking it was an exciting, entertaining action thriller with likeable protagonists and an engaging enough plot. This is still true but the more I thought about it, the more disappointed I became. Legacy seemed a little shallow, really, and I didn't think it really added much to the series, informationally or philosophically. 

Incidentally, according to IMDb, before he knew there would be a fourth film, Paul Greengrass, who directed Bournes #2 and #3, joked that #4 should be called The Bourne Redundancy. Again, maybe those who have seen all three films and remember them well will disagree with me, but Legacy felt like an excuse to shoot some big guns, play with some expensive technology, make up a bit of science (genetics, epigenetics and virology, mainly) and put together a fun action romp. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that; as I said, I enjoyed the film and was gripped throughout its 2h15 length. Maybe films like Inception have just trained me to want — and expect — more from my action thrillers.

I [Heart] London

It may seem odd for someone who has lived in the city for the first five and latest four years of her life to suddenly fall back in love with London, especially on what may well be the busiest Saturday of the summer, but that's what happened today. 

I was supposed to meet a friend for brunch but she had to reschedule and I decided to go to Old Street anyway to test out a couple of independent coffee bars that have been on my list for a while (of which more to follow). Afterwards, I walked down Moorgate and over to One New Change to take a few pictures of the skyline and St Paul's from the shopping centre's rooftop. I've been there a few times now, but only in winter and/or at night time, so I thought it would be nice to go on a sunny day for once.

One New Change leaps

I walked through St Paul's Churchyard and down to the Millennium Bridge, which was heaving. Maybe it was because it was the first sunny Saturday we have had in months, but somehow I didn't really care how busy it was. I didn't even care that much about large groups of people walking super slowly. I decided to walk along the North Bank to Tower Bridge to get a closer view of the Olympic rings.

Olympic rings on Tower Bridge

The Olympics may also be responsible for my renewed pride in my home city: I had been a real Olympics scrooge up until about 20 minutes into the Opening Ceremony, when suddenly I found myself, à contrecœur, falling for it all. My photos are no way near as cool as this Reuters shot of the full moon forming the sixth ring, of course, but I had fun walking over the bridge and all the way back home to NoMaRo, via the South Bank, the Hungerford Bridge and Soho.

That ring thing

Once the weather inevitably returns to normal and the London 2012 excitement dies down, maybe my rediscovered London love with diminish and my New York lust will return. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying summer in the city.

The Burger Bulletin: Tommi's Burger Joint Review (CLOSED)

A hip but low-key Icelandic burger joint in Marylebone sounds about as unlikely as...well, a hip but grungy Marylebone burger and cocktail joint above a strip joint. Pretty likely then. And so Tommi's Burger Joint enters the increasingly competitive London burger stakes. I often walk home along Marylebone Lane and I've been waiting for weeks for it to open and yesterday it finally did. They are still in soft launch phase, which means no shakes, but 50% off the already fairly reasonably priced (for W1) menu.

Tommi's Burger Joint, Marylebone Lane

After an hour of queuing for Paralympics tickets in the rain this evening, I decided to treat myself to a burger and fries on my way home. I walked past Meat Liquor and winced at the size of the queue, hoping that the masses hadn't yet found about Tommi's. I didn't need to worry as there were several perching spots available at the 25-seat diner, and judging by the attire of the clientele — several suits and no one apart from me in skinny jeans — it's mainly locals who have discovered Tommi's so far. 

I had high hopes for my burger: pre-launch: the window was filled with glowing reviews of the Reykjavik original, including a position in this list of the 50 best burgers in the world, of which I've only been to Corner Bistro, Shake Shack, Jo'Burger and Meat Wagon. Luckily, it lived up to my expectations.

Yes, this is an Icelandic diner in Marylebone

You order at the register and can then either take your food away or perch at one of the tables. I waited less than ten minutes for my food. At £5 for a burger, £5.80 for a cheeseburger and £8.90 for the "offer of the century" (burger, fries and a soda — 50p extra with cheese), the prices aren't bad. Plus, there is no "optional" 12.5% service charge; you can leave a tip in the jar, of course, and I did. 

As they were doing 50% off today, I decided to go for the offer of the century with cheese, leaving the bacon for another visit. In all the excitement, I forgot to make my usual pedantic requests — a plain cheeseburger, cooked medium rare — and then when I went back to ask for my burger to come plain, I forgot to ask for it medium rare. Fortunately, it came how medium should be: pink and beautifully juicy. The fries were tasty — skinny and not too salty — and there were just about the right amount of them too.

A very good cheeseburger

"Best burger in London" is a difficult competition to judge but Tommi's is definitely in the running. True, you can't have a cocktail, à la Meat Liquor, but you will be able to have a milkshake. I think the takeaway option will prove dangerous too on those nights when I'm feeling too lazy to cook. You should check out Tommi's before the hype and inevitable queues begin— at least at Meat Liquor, you can queue under a shelter, whereas at Tommi's you are left to those harsh Marylebone elements. It's a tough life.

Tommi's Burger Joint. 58 Marylebone Lane, London, W1U 2NX (Tube: Bond Street). CLOSED

Ring Cycle

In spite of my relative ambivalence about the London Olympic Games, in the past week I have: attended an opening ceremony party and participated in an accompanying drinking game (and enjoyed it); ordered tickets to some athletics at the Paralympic Games; watched about eight hours of women's gymnastics qualifiers; developed some serious Games envy when hearing about great tickets other people got; and finally, tonight, attended a couple of preliminary women's volleyball games.

Patriotic-ish outfit of the day (L) and in position at Earl's Court (R)

The whole experience was pretty painless as well as being fun. My Tube journey to Earl's Court didn't take any longer than on a normal Friday evening and there were no queues to get into the venue; nor were the security checks particularly onerous. This meant I arrived almost an hour before the 8 pm start time. This was lucky given that there were very few water fountains and I had to queue for over 45 minutes to fill up my bottle.

Once I got in and found my seat, I was pleased to see that I had a good view of the court; I was pretty high up but almost at the centre of the back of the court. Despite talk of too many empty seats at Olympic events, the stadium was pretty full and there was a great atmosphere. The first match was Team USA vs Serbia and, as expected, it wasn't much of a contest. Although the USA made a slow start in the first set, they convincingly took that set and the following two to win the game. In the second game, Italy played Algeria and although this was a little more evenly matched, Italy won in straight sets.

All's fair in love and volleyball (top), technical time-out,
i.e. court sweeping (bottom)

It was interesting to see the differences between the US team and the others. I don't think I noticed a single serving fault in the US team, for example, whereas the others hit several serves into the net and sent several long. I was also surprised how few of the serves were jump serves. I used to play volleyball for my university team and I know how hard jump serves are, but I thought that at this level there might be more of them. 

Some of the tallest players, including USA's Simona Gioli, have the luxury of being able to lightly toss the ball up and casually send it soaring over the net; others' rely on their consistency over their power. Serving was actually one of my secret weapons when I played. My overarm serve was fine but I had a super-fast underarm serve with hella topspin on it, which won me a fair few aces over the years, not least because my opponents never expected it. I was also pleased that even the national teams do the same warm-up we used to do before every match.

 L: Italy in royal blue and Algeria in white; R: USA in navy, Serbia in white 

One of the things that most confused the audience was the libero position. Why is she wearing a different colour top? / I think she's the captain or Maybe they ran out of shirts. I used to play libero, a specialist defense player who can freely switch in and out of the game as needed. Basically, their job is to get all the difficult shots that come over the net and to back up the blockers in case they can't block a spike. In most sports, I hate defensive positions but when you are 5'4ish, you don't have a lot of choice. Indeed, even in the national teams, the liberos tend to be of fairly average height.

Attack the block! USA/Serbia (T), Italy/Algeria (B)

I had a really good time tonight — it reminded me of how much I used to love volleyball and how much I miss playing, even if I don't miss the bruised knees or getting volleyballs in my face. Everyone was having a good time and in the second match started to cheer on Algeria, who had fewer supporters in the crowd. The emcee organised a couple of karaoke numbers and other activities to stir up some energy; I found these a little awkward but unlike many of the attendees who got their tickets because it was the only Olympic ticket available, I really enjoy watching volleyball.

Getting home wasn't too bad, either: it didn't take too long to get out of the venue and then I got a bus straight back to NoMaRo. For £30, it was a great, entertaining night: I got to see two matches and some brilliant volleyball, and I got to go to the Olympics. Hooray! If any volleyball tickets become available, don't be put off by the fact that it's not one of the major sports and that it's not in the Olympic Park: I'd highly recommend snapping them.