You would think the local Italians would get together to save Britain from its sad state of coffee humiliation, but no. Our real saviours are from the other side of the world â Australia â where, ironically, the coffee is excellent because there were so many post-war Italian immigrants.
Now the newly opened Milk Bar (antipodean for local corner store) in Soho, London, is pulling a steady stream of Australian and New Zealand blokes and sheilas desperate for a double-shot flat white, long black, double macchiato or piccolo.
Like its big brother Flat White (antipodean for caffe latte, sort of) a few blocks away in Berwick Street, Milk Bar is serious about coffee and casual about everything else.
Cameron, the sainted barista, is so excited about his gleaming new La Marzocco you can hear him from down the street, asking the girls what they think of his beautiful machine. Milk crates are apparently on the way, so you can sit on a stool on the footpath with a milk crate for a table, just as they do in the back streets of Darlinghurst in Sydney and St Kilda in Melbourne. Ah, bliss.
Milk Bar, 3 Bateman Street W1. Tel:020 7287 4796
Flat White, 17 Berwick Street W1. Tel 020 7734 0370
Yep, looks like it could be in the side streets of Balaclava. Nice to know that Aussies can get some respite in Old Blighty. Next time you're back home you should check out St.Ali in a laneway opposite Coles in South Melbourne. Mark's leading the new charge in coffee venues and is also hoping to cultivate a new movement of Skater Punk Roasters and Baristas. Copycats are beginning to emerge.
Posted by: stickyfingers | Tuesday, 06 May 2008 at 01:48 AM
Terry Durack - you are a very ignorant man, and seem quite the jingo-ist.
Italians who came to the UK in the 1920s and 30s started coffee bars - very famous ones, in England, Scotland and Wales; Milk Bar is a phrase we used until the 1960s, whcih Australia hasn't reached yet it seems; England was actually the first european country to have cafes, or coffee houses as they were called 300+ years ago; by 200 years ago tea was affordable and was crucial not only to trade but also to enabling large numbers of people to live in cities without drinking the water and getting cholera.
Personally, as coffee gives no benefits to the body other than a drug hit, I prefer tea - far more civilised. Also, I cannot stand the prats who congregate of well-know american coffee stores, all pretending they're bigshot businesspeople coz they've ordered an overprice pretentious choca-mocha-latte: swill for idiot porkers.
Posted by: Mikkey | Tuesday, 06 May 2008 at 09:06 AM
I wouldn't get over-excited, the coffee is English I'm afraid!
Posted by: Janessa | Tuesday, 06 May 2008 at 10:39 AM
Ah Mikkey, but what happened to the Englishman and his cuppa? Other European countries had no British East India Company to inexorably push tea over coffee. But as to any beneficial effects of drinking coffee I digress. "Tis extolled for drying up the Crudities of the Stomack, and for expelling Fumes out of the Head," one historian is quoted in our old friend Wikipedia. Hmmmm, yes, expelling fumes out of the head ... now there's a reason.
Posted by: James | Wednesday, 07 May 2008 at 11:49 AM
Mikkey, if you've not had a chance to sit at a local cafe and sip a full bodied coffee as part of a catch up with friends, beginning /end of a night out, or to alleviate the fatigue of raising a new born, then you may never know the beauty of the Italian / Australian way of life. As so eloquently stated in the blog, the Italians brought a way of life to Australia that I am sorry, does not exist in England. No matter how much you may protest and point the finger back at history, you can't claim the culture which is the main point of the post. Here's to a satisfying flat white!
Posted by: Max | Thursday, 08 May 2008 at 01:30 PM
its more Kiwi than Aussie. I think its got an Aussie owner, but the Kiwi staff and tone give it away as more Wellington than Melbourne.
Posted by: AC | Wednesday, 18 June 2008 at 11:14 AM
The truth is that both Milk Bar & Flat White serve some of the best coffee in London - regardless of the source of the beans (Monmouth, no?).
Also, regardless of whether these cafes are really Kiwi or Aussie (and I am Australian), this sort of atmosphere is hard to find in England, but common and fabulous in Australia! Here's to more cafes like these two, and way way less waste-of-space Starbucks in this fine city.
Posted by: Laura | Tuesday, 02 September 2008 at 12:17 PM
The Milk Bar and Flat White are simply fabulous establishments serving great coffee, wonderful food in a very covetable atmosphere.
The same cannot be said for the coffee chains where the drinks are washed out, the food pedestrian and the atmosphere horrid.
No matter which country you hale from (moi = South African) these two little gems are exactly that ..... gems 'discovered' in a City otherwise lacking in good coffee shops with soul. If it's taken some Kiwis or some Aussies to bring us this pleasure - let's all rejoice as opposed to sniping about what and from where.
Posted by: hhrtmnn | Saturday, 10 January 2009 at 05:53 PM
nb. Monmouth coffee is also run by australians or new zealanders!
Posted by: Tickle | Friday, 20 March 2009 at 01:29 PM
Lack of health benefits of coffee? Who the hell cares. Milk Bar and Flat White are two of my happiest places to get a flat white.
Tina We Salute you in Stoke Newington is also as awesome. Most other coffees in England tastes to me like half a shot of coffee in a bucket of milk.
Posted by: Hayley M | Tuesday, 20 October 2009 at 04:58 PM