Six of One: Cafe Culture
Cafes Cafes Cafes. Ones on rivers, others in squares, ones serving pastel de choclo.
Hello and welcome back to Vittles Restaurants.
Six of One is a column dedicated to London restaurant recommendations. In each issue, six writers will share a restaurant, bakery, cafe or takeaway spot that they believe deserves to be better known. You can find the full Six of One back catalogue here.
Today’s Six of One recommendations are from Tom Mouritz, Mohammed Ali Salha, Isaac Rangaswami, Hanna Pham, Siqi Chong, and Yanyu Sun.
Also a reminder that our selection of six art prints made in collaboration with illustrator Sing Yun Lee and photographer Michaël Protin are now available to buy via our website. We hope that you find something that you love.
1. The Pie Crust Cafe
Since 2012, when the London Legacy Development Corporation began to control town planning in parts of Stratford and other areas surrounding the Olympic Park, the capitalistic architectural ethos there has been to ‘enlarge the pie’. In other words, increasing the amount of capital that can be reaped from sites at the sacrifice of their original soul (though, officially, the design charter has encouraged new development ‘to draw on the unique energy, character and heritage of the Lower Lea Valley and wider east London’). This month, planning powers will soon revert to the four local boroughs (Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest), but when reflecting on the new development and changed spaces in Stratford across LDDC’s reign, its legacy feels like a series of ‘pie crust promises’ (‘easily made, easily broken’, as Mary Poppins said) – for what has actually improved here?
Ironically, Stratford’s The Pie Crust Cafe steadfastly refuses to crumble after nearly four decades, maintaining that rich East End energy, character and heritage celebrated on paper by the planning overlords. Its relatively new neighbours on the high street crowd over the top and around it, so that the sight of the Pie Crust evokes images of a lone, stubborn house resistant to compulsory purchase while, in the name of progress, the state lays down a motorway around it.
The Pie Crust has the look and feel of a classic caff: you sit under a wonky roof on formica tables lined up against pristine wood panelling, but is distinguished by its ambidextrous kitchen and wall decor, which focuses on Thai mythology and the royal family. Alongside burgers, or ham and chips, the menu bulges with Thai staples; there are several iterations of rice and noodle dishes, curries and salads. In some ways this fusion is not an unfamiliar vibe – boozers serving Thai food are plentiful across London – but it's a rarer thing to find good Thai in an old-school workers' cafe.
During the daytime, the ‘express lunch’ menu provides a frugal and efficient meal if you’re in that mode. When I’ve had time on my hands I’ve also enjoyed exploring the boundaries of the Thai caff form: balancing a simple but dignified egg sandwich with sweet satay prawns, or a glistening khao pad krapow with a punchy carrot-based som tum salad. On evenings, the interior is jazzed up (the wax-dripped wine bottles holding candles are a sight to behold) as the Pie Crust assumes a typical neighbourhood Thai restaurant feel, one that would be particularly fun to enjoy with a small group of friends. Tom Mouritz
273 High St, E15 2TF
Behind the paywall: Today is a cafe special, so we have six recommendations for cafes of all kinds! Among them, a cafe in a florist, a cafe in a mall, a cafe serving onigiri, a cafe in a cafe, and a cafe which serves baked potatoes, panini, pastel de choclo and sopaipillas. London cafe culture is alive and well.