
Until a few years ago it could be easy to think that Belsize Park was caught, like middle age, between sprightly Camden and hoary old Hampstead. In one of its post-war cafes, for example, you might expect to glimpse a Celia Johnson or Trevor Howard sharing a pot of tea and some unspoken attraction.
Anyway, back in 2010 Lantern, an innovative new “hipster” caff opened on England’s Lane. It served sharing plates, its windows were unblushingly large, interior moodily lit – and 1930s tables rakishly salvaged.
It closed down after six months. And a a year or so later, in walked Ginger and White, on their second store, with a similar concept.
The cafe is now licensed – so take your pick from English bubbly like Nyetimber (Sussex) or Chapel Down (Kent) – but we settled for a freshly squeezed orange and grapefruit juice.
The food? Think Caravan, the hit Exmouth Market/King’s Cross restaurant. Simple, rustic, all quality ingredients and no fuss: posh fishfinger sarnies, spicy home-made baked beans with chorizo and feta.
We settled for a deliciously meaty smoked mackerel, its richness cut with a dash of horseradish, tangy sumac and bright orange yolk bursting over hard-to-cut sourdough.
Yet the overriding memory of our lunch – on one of October’s balmy days – was a race against time due to the resilience of Belsize Park’s wasp population. Aggressive, tenacious and not flustered by any attempts to remove them, they sank their fangs into risotto, and bathed joyously in egg yolk, before tucking into rogue strands of smoked fish that lined the plate.
Ginger and White is faultless in what it does, so we wondered, why don’t more businesses eyeing up Kentish Town realise that this is a concept that works? It’d look mighty fine on the high street.
And as for England’s Lane? Well, it’s quite sexy once again, the success of Ginger and White this year ushering in two more stylish openings: Black Truffle deli over the road, and next door the diminutive Cinnamon, another l’il artisan coffee shop.