Nude Espresso
26 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields, London E1 6QR
This little café off Brick Lane is a fine example of the ‘third wave’ of London coffee houses – artisanal places which select, roast and grind their own beans, and consider the production of the finished drink an art form. The baristas at Nude Espresso love coffee, and experiment with all sorts of different beans and blends. The café itself is small and the music is often loud, making it more a place for a caffeine fix than somewhere to linger with your book or laptop – plus it gets packed to the rafters on weekends. But the welcome is uniformly warm, the cakes and pastries are tempting and – most importantly of all – they really know how to make a cup of coffee.