Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
"One of the best cups of coffee in north London": Congratulations Blend
Photo: Hugh Flouch
From a review of Blend just published on ViewLondon: "Who would have thought that one of the best cups of coffee to be found in north London would come from a café on Green Lanes? Café Blend is helping to drive the Haringey community into the spotlight for all the right reasons."
Well done guys - much deserved.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tara-Lee Platt on
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Great stuff. The poached eggs with smoked salmon and asparagus I had on Saturday was delicious.
I wrote a piece about them for the Tottenham Journal recently. (We've pasted this in below)
Such a good place.
Green Lanes gets a caffeine-shot in the arm with one of the best cafes in north London
Green Lanes is crammed with restaurants, cafés and grocery shops, and in my humble opinion is one of the best places this side of the Thames to sample good food, coffee and atmosphere. So it would take something really quite special to stand out from the crowd. Step up and take a bow, Blend, the latest addition to Haringey’s foodie high street.
Blend opened in May after owners Steve and Linda took the plunge and turned their occasional conversations about opening their own café into reality.
Steve, a coffee shop manager by profession, and Linda, a City researcher with a serious line in home baking, have both lived in Haringey for many years and had had the odd pub conversation about the need for more cafés locally and what their ideal one would look like.
When they both left their jobs around the same time, they took the bull by the horns and went into business together to open their dream café. Soon after, they were scouring the area for premises, discovering along the way how hotly-contested Green Lanes is for food licenses. In February, after a six-month search, they found the perfect place, sitting between Beresford and Allison Roads of the Harringay Ladder.
Turning a run-down commercial building into a buzzing urban eatery was a real labour of love. After stripping the space down to its bare bones, they sourced the beautiful reclaimed parquet flooring from a school in east London and organised a painting party to get the blank canvas they needed to create their perfect place to drink coffee.
When you enter Blend, you really don’t feel like you’re in north London. The stylish and pared-down Scandinavian design influence is tempered with warm and welcoming lights from Angelo’s in Turnpike Lane (I’ve always loved that shop, so this pleased me greatly!).
The furniture is a mix of donations from friends and a shopping trip to a Denmark vintage dealer and warehouse – a trip that resulted in so many purchases, Steve and Linda had to hire a van back in London and do the 16-hour drive to Denmark to collect the excess!
Thanks to publicity courtesy of Harringay Online, Steve and Linda were overwhelmed to find a queue of people snaking down Green Lanes on their opening day, and the customers just haven’t stopped coming since. The frequently-changing menu is full of inspired food combinations with dishes such as courgette and lime soup (served with Linda’s quite brilliant black rye bread), British strawberries teamed with mozzarella and spinach leaves alongside homemade baguettes, and some great breakfast options from granola to shakshuka – eggs baked in a spicy red and yellow pepper sauce, served with buttermilk bread.
The coffee is, of course, where Steve’s experience in the industry really comes to the fore. After many taste tests and visits to roasters, Steve plumped for Climpson & Sons of Hackney’s Broadway Market. I am firmly a latte girl, but the gorgeous scents in Blend and the obvious enthusiasm Steve has for all things coffee may well tempt me to broaden my beverage horizons.
Blend is a real treat of a place and it’s terrific that Steve and Linda chose to open in Green Lanes rather than the more obvious Crouch End or Muswell Hill. Linda hopes to extend their offering to evening opening in the future, which would be a really positive thing for the area.
I can’t recommend it enough so go and grab a coffee, a homemade pastry and blend in.
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Permalink Reply by Peter L. Bailey on
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Sure its a nice cafe and congratulations to the owners on their efforts, but I couldn't help noticing the bit about "you really don't feel like you're in north London"... I thought it was alright around here! ;-)
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It was meant as in it feels more like you're in Scandinavia, no slight on our beloved Haringey :)
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Permalink Reply by M.LORD on
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And like that I want to go. So next week, that's where I'm headed. Thanks for the review.
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See you there!
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Oh haven't been there yet. Someone else told me how fab it was. Thanks for reminding me to try it out.
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Hugh/Liz - thanks for re-posting my piece :)
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Permalink Reply by Robert Pike on
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Just moved to the area and so it is very good to come across Blend to fulfill all my cake and coffee needs. Great atmosphere within and love the muted decor.
Any other good food/ cafe/ pub tips for newbies to the area?
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Permalink Reply by JulieB on
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Moka on Wightman Road is a fantastic cafe and I really like the Salisbury.
I do really like Blend but I actually prefer the coffee in Moka, I find Blend's coffee a little bitter.
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Went for eggs benedict and yummy coffee on Saturday morning. One of the best egg bennies I have ever had, and I have had a few. amazing service and space too. My new local!
Went down the road and found another new funky venue where Muna's used to be (next to Medlocks) that do live music and evening munchies. Need to try that out this week. ;-)
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It is a beautiful cafe and I was pleased to meet several of our regulars including Hugh last Friday. But £5 for a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, albeit nice cake, is a bit OTT.
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