Brunswick House Cafe, Vauxhall: Cafe of the Week

Brunswick House

How to describe Brunswick House Cafe? Here's a stab: village hall teleported  to Vauxhall roundabout and given an urban edge. With brunch.

This English eccentric cafe is the only Georgian building on its patch - the unlovely surrounds of Vauxhall bus station and new-build yuppie flats on the Thames' edge, which tower over Brunswick House. You have to cross several perilous lanes of traffic to even get to the cafe, ducking and diving buses like a Dodgeball training exercise.

But the life-threatening traffic dodging is worth it as Brunswick House is a gem. The building is owned by architectural salvage firm Lassco, so as well as the cafe there are three storeys of treasures to admire, stroke and rifle through - chandeliers, reclaimed furniture and floorboards, wooden letters and antique doorknobs. All at central London prices of course (I could just about have stretched to a doorknob.)

Brunswick House Cafe

Brunswick House Cafe is on the ground floor. The decor is a hotch-potch of 50s Americana, church-hall fire sale and assorted Victoriana. And it totally works. The larger, industrial features stop the garlands of bunting looking too cutesy, while the stage at the back of the room adds an endearing touch - it feels as though an am dram group might run on in doublets at any moment.

The brunch menu is short but inventive. There's a Dexter meatball sub, waffles and strawberries with a pool of chocolate sauce, and a smoked salmon and courgette frittata with radish salad. I opt for roast tomatoes and aioli on toast with bacon. So simple, but deliciously effective...

aioli and slow-roast tomatoes on toast, Brunswick House

A thick slice of sourdough is topped with creamy and potent aioli. It'd never occurred to me to put aioli on toast before but it's a winner, especially with the garlic off-set by sweet slow-roast tomatoes, crisp bacon and a tangle of watercress.

Salt beef with dripping toast, Brunswick House

Chloe's salt beef with dripping toast, cheese, pickles and mustard is essentially a deconstructed Reuben sandwich. With the thickest, tenderest slab of salt beef you've ever seen.

Sourdough doughnut, Brunswick House Cafe

Best of all? There's pudding. In our case, a warm sourdough doughnut with apricot compote and creme fraiche. The sour dough and lightest dusting of sugar mean it's actually not too sweet, especially with the tangy apricot and slight sourness of the creme fraiche. Like everything else at Brunswick House cafe it's original, unexpected and executed with style. 

Brunswick House Cafe, 30 Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall London SW8 2LG

Brunswickhousecafe.com

Workshop Coffee, London EC1: Cafe of the Week

Workshop Coffee, Clerkenwell EC1

Workshop Coffee may look familiar. In its previous life, this Clerkenwell Road cafe was St Ali, the London outpost of a much-loved Melbourne coffee house. But the Brit upstart has broken free of the Aussie mothership with a name-change, a new evening menu and noticeably shorter benches outside (they've sawn off the carved 'St Ali's).

I reviewed it on Pinch of Salt in its previous incarnation, when the place had just opened and menu had a few teething problems. It's since become one of my regular hangouts, so as I've now sampled what Workshop has to offer for all three daily meals, plus brunch and a liberal smattering of coffee and cakes, I thought it was nigh time for another review. Any excuse for one of their soy macchiatos and a buttery passionfruit friand...

The interior remains unchanged from the cafe's brief year as 'St Ali'. The living plant wall, hulking great coffee roaster, the exposed-brick walls et al are still in situ. But the lunch and dinner menus are now as much of a focus for Workshop's Tim Williams as coffee and brunch. On a recent lunch visit, the two-storey cafe was busy and buzzy.

Baked eggs came topped with a thick crust of just-browned Feta. Hidden underneath was a pool of  rich saffron and tomato ragu and rounds of chorizo. Perfect rainy day comfort food, although I would've preferred a slightly runnier yolk.

Chermoula lamb cutlets, Workshop Coffee

Tori's chermoula lamb cutlets were tender and juicy with a delicious crust, but there wasn't much meat after cutting through the thick, wobbly seam of fat.  They were served on top of a wonderful broth-y pile of braised white beans and chorizo, the lemon and parsley of the chermoula providing a zesty counterpoint to the rich lamb and pig.

Workshop is now open in the evenings too, and I was recently invited to check out the dinner menu by the PR. I leapt at the chance to lock my jaw around Workshop's cult Dexter burger, which took months of burger tastings to perfect...

Workshop Coffee Dexter burger

This is a burger that lives up to its press clippings. Inside a toasted brioche bun you'll find a fat patty of medium-rare beef covered with nutty Comte cheese that melts and sinks into the meat to make one seriously savoury whole. It comes served with skin-on fried ratte potatoes to dunk into a tangy chipotle mayonnaise.

Smoked haddock fishcakes 

Similarly praise-worthy is the fishcake. Isn't a beauty? A cricket ball of smoked haddock enlivened with ginger and lemongrass and topped with a silky poached egg. I love the presentation with the rich tomato sauce spooling down the sides, and the seasonal leaves piled on top.

What else is good here? Well the baristas know their stuff, and that gleaming beast of a coffee roaster is something to behold, lit by the skylight above. The racks of tempting bakes on the counter are, as the slogan from the old Cadbury's Fudge ads has it:  'just enough to give a kid a treat' - little brownies, airy friands, savoury muffins. It was quiet when we visited for dinner and the room needed that daytime buzz but I'm sure the siren call of the Dexter burger means Workshop will soon be packed by night as well as day.

Workshop Coffee, 27 Clerkenwell Road London EC1M 5RN
www.workshopcoffee.com

Wilderness Festival competition

Wilderness Festival banquet

*This competition is now closed. There were some absolutely brilliant entries - so many creative menus and entertaining line-ups. Some of you should become event organisers! The winner of the two tickets is Kiran Cunningham who wanted music from Bob Marley and Nick Drake among many others, a food swap tent and 'enough banoffee pie to build a stage out of. Congratulations Kiran!*

Dear reader, we've established you like food. Do you also like festivals? Do you like festivals where Yotam Ottolenghi does the cooking, Wilco do the music and Secret Cinema put on a screening of Bugsy Malone complete with splat guns? Well, then I think you're going to like Wilderness Festival, which is handy as Pinch of Salt has a pair of weekend camping tickets to give away!

The award-winning Wilderness Festival takes place at Cornbury Park Estate in Oxfordshire from 10-12th August 2012, and is produced by the people behind Lovebox and Secret Garden Party.

The food line up is incredible. Forget dodgy falafel and hot dogs of questionable origin, Wilderness Festival features a souk tent from Moro and a series of banquets from Valentine Warner, Fergus Henderson and St John, and Yotam Ottolenghi.

Music comes from the likes of  Rodrigo y Gabriela, Wilco, Spiritualized and Lianne La Havas. There'll also be theatre, talks, cooking classes, Future Cinema, the Idler Academy and School of Life, a spa and lots of other good stuff.

I'll be packing my pop-up tent (£7 in the 2009 Millets sale. Bargain.) and heading to Oxfordshire to join in the fun. And one lucky Pinch of Salt reader* can win a pair of tickets too (splat gun and transport not included).

To be in with a chance of winning, answer the following question in the comments section below by 15th July...

What would your dream festival line up be, including the food, and why?

Best answer wins the tickets! Good luck.

Visit www.wildernessfestival.com for tickets and further information.

*Sorry, UK readers only.

The Fat Radish, New York: Cafe of the Week

The Fat Radish, New York

The Fat Radish could just about earn its place as Cafe of the Week by virtue of name alone. But this Lower East Side, New York, cafe and bar has more going for it than just a great name.

Located on a quiet stretch of Orchard Street, just north of the screeching bustle of Canal Street, The Fat Radish is one of those places that's not much to look at from across the road. The beauty is all on the inside. Walk through a small coffee bar and foyer into a white-washed room filled with light from a long open-shuttered window and a huge mirror, with specials listed in pink and white pen.

The Fat Radish interior, LES

The Fat Radish has a loosely 'modern British' theme, which means on the plus side there's a full English and bacon butties on the brunch menu for homesick ex-pats, and artfully displayed Brit groceries on the shelves (never has Rose's Lime Cordial looked so chic). On the downside, I'm not sure the hipster staff have been fully briefed in the cuisine of our fair Isle - the waitress described a special of kedgeree as 'Irish risotto.' Oh dear.

The brunch menu was of the kind New York does so well - full of inventive ways with eggs, the pig and carbohydrates balanced with super-healthy dishes for the gangly model types who are two-a-penny in these parts. Though how anyone has the self-restraint to order 'The Fat Radish plate' - seven types of seasonal market vegetables (kale, squash, Swiss chard etc) and nothing else, is beyond me.

The Fat Radish burger

We ordered mostly from the other end of the healthiness spectrum. J ordered the house burger (yes, you can  legitimately eat burgers for brunch in NYC). It came smothered in melted cheese and crispy bacon and was served with rust-coloured duck-fat fries. It was delicious, but so decadent as to to kick-start feelings of remorse after just a few bites.

A portly potato cake came bound in cloth and served with sauteed Brussels sprouts, crisp bacon and a runny poached egg. A stylish take on a rustic hash or bubble and squeak.

The Fat Radish, avocado on toast with spicy eggs

I ordered 'avocado on seven-grain toast with spicy eggs' and was pleasantly surprised when it arrived with two soft-boiled eggs on top rather than poached, the yolk bursting out over the avocado with just one press of my fork. The eggs were drizzled with hot sauce and the avocado was well-seasoned. It's an easy twist on avocado on toast that I'll definitely be trying at home.

The Fat Radish, avocado on toast with spicy eggs

The Laughing Man French-press coffee was so-so, but a hangover-baiting red juice of beetroot, celery and apple made me feel better almost instantly. You can be as indulgent or as health-conscious as you like at The Fat Radish. Just steer clear of the 'Irish risotto.'

The Fat Radish, 17 Orchard Street, New York NY 10002
www.thefatradishnyc.com