Caffe Forum - Redux

When I’m in London, I prefer to stay in Kensington.  Why?  Lots of cool pubs.  Wonderful restaurants.  Both Gloucester Road and South Kensington Stations are close at hand.  My rule is:  gotta stay near a tube station on the Piccadilly Line.  Hugely convenient.

How so, you ask?  Oh, these pesky questions. Here are a few stations of the many that connect on the Piccadilly Line:  Covent Garden (best shopping in London, with historic pubs nearby).  Piccadilly Circus (The Heart of London, and the junction of Regent, Piccadilly, and Oxford Steets – talk about shopping!).  Leicester Square (pronounced Lester and the center of the theater district, with many pubs, China Town, and the National Portrait Gallery a couple of blocks away). Knightsbridge (Harrods close by, along with The Science Museum).  I could go on and on, but you’d never remember anyway because all you want to do in London is drink fabulous beer.  My tip of the day:  Do a cut and paste for your wives and significant others, then go raise a pint or two or three in every pub you run across while your W’s and S.O.’s are shopping.

But, all that’s for later.  Any good day in London begins with breakfast, and in the misty morning hours, when you’re staying in the Kensington area (which by the way includes the Royal Albert Hall and The Victoria and Albert Museum and Hyde Park and Kensington Palace), the very best place to start the day is the Caffe Forum. (More cut and paste)

Order a full English breakfast (of which I have previous written, you thankless cad!:  http://stroudallover.blogspot.de/2012/04/full-english-breakfast-tradition.html), or do what I do and order a flat white (coffee).  What is that?  It’s what the French call café au lait, and the Italians call a cappuccino, but without all the fluff.  Any coffee at Caffe Forum comes with a complimentary croissant, and the pleasant ‘London-is-waking-up’ atmosphere.  Also free. Coffee time is bargain time, planning time, slowly rev-ing the engine time.

Yes, I have also written of the Caffe Forum before, but it’s such a special place that on lazy mornings, sipping a coffee, no matter where I am, I dream of sitting at a wooden table, the rattle of dishes in the background, the scurry of wait staff around me, the aromas of fresh eggs and bacon permeating every corner, the young professionals patiently standing in line adjusting their ties or their skirts, the rush of cool air every time the front door swings open, the idle conversations in a dozen languages, as husbands and wives cheer each other and calm their recalcitrant children, and the elderly sit peacefully alone, reading their newspapers, with everything accompanied by the clamor and swirl of traffic on Gloucester Road.

Caffe Forum is a very personal London in a nutshell.  You really must go there.  Remember:  FIVE pubs nearby.