Edited by Pete Collier, Friday, 18 Jul 2014, 10:43
...as Saturday 12th saw me eating my favourite pizza in the Bruton Place Pizza Express, just off Berkeley Square. This was without Richard or my son (Laurence) who, generally speaking, most recently anyway, are with me when I’m eating at PE.
Less unexpectedly (as in planned...) I posted TMA 03 for M140 (stats) on Sat morning and although I knew that Richard was having a well deserved Saturday off, I wanted to ‘relax’ - perhaps not the right word... - and did so by going on the tube to London and eating pizza at Bruton Place Of course, I also really wanted to visit the new ‘Workshop Coffee’ in Mortimer Street (Fitzrovia) again... to see that it is still good, and indeed it is It is,so far, just that little bit preferable to the Wigmore Street coffeebar where, even so, I had one of each of their Colombian espressos.
Not only all that (!) but the Finca Tamana Espresso that I have been drinking at Workshop coffee these past two visits (28th June and 12th July) tastes even better than the previous Columbian - from Finca Asturias - that I had been enjoying so much With the absence, for a while, of the longstanding espresso blend Cult of Done Espresso (now v.17) that is my ‘reference coffee’ in these matters, I have been drinking one of each of the Colombian varieties and, this time, in both these coffeebars !
This, slightly edited, from their web-site:
“Since 2012 we've been purchasing all we can of the top quality lots produced at Finca Tamana; Elias Roa's farm in El Pital, Colombia. For the most part we've roasted the coffee from Finca Tamana for filter brewing, and have packed the coffee into lovely 350g bags, distributed to retail and wholesale customers a-like, shipping Elias's coffee all over the world. There will be (however) this fantastic coffee - roasted for espresso - in the main grinders of all our stores.
For the majority of the month of July (as long as our supplies last) we will be replacing our usual Cult of Done Espresso with Finca Tamana Espresso and using this wonderful Caturra selection for all of our espresso-based drinks.”
Lovely stuff!
After all the espresso and that v.good pizza on Saturday - and going solo - I met up with Richard at his home in Luton on Monday (14th). Normally, Monday morning is set aside for one of my weekly food/household shopping trips and I generally go to the Hoover Building (Perivale/Greenford, W. London). As we had planned lunch, I thought it best to get there early and shop in the Tesco ‘extra’ in Dunstable - 5 minutes by car from where Richard lives. Yet more espresso was consumed; two in Costa (inside Tesco) and the ‘PE blend’ alongside yet another ‘classic’ sloppy giuseppe pizza . One of the not so good things about the Luton trips (apart from the lack of a Workshop Coffee!) is that, yet again, Bruton Place PE serves a better pizza. Having said that, without the comparison of other PE’s, Luton is just fine for this sort of thing...
After awhile though, it does gets a bit much for me with the more usual routine making for ‘loads of espresso and a pizza’ happening only every three or four weeks. Recently this has become every two weeks and twice this past week. Still, it is rather enjoyable!
Music-wise I am still playing Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) and now even play along to some of the ‘less complex’ numbers when ‘doing my trumpet’
Looking forward to mid-August for the next visit to London, so 'til then, and with less espresso for while, keep cool...
Unexpectedly, the Espresso Guy went solo...
...as Saturday 12th saw me eating my favourite pizza in the Bruton Place Pizza Express, just off Berkeley Square. This was without Richard or my son (Laurence) who, generally speaking, most recently anyway, are with me when I’m eating at PE.
Less unexpectedly (as in planned...) I posted TMA 03 for M140 (stats) on Sat morning and although I knew that Richard was having a well deserved Saturday off, I wanted to ‘relax’ - perhaps not the right word...
- and did so by going on the tube to London and eating pizza at Bruton Place
Of course, I also really wanted to visit the new ‘Workshop Coffee’ in Mortimer Street (Fitzrovia) again... to see that it is still good, and indeed it is
It is,so far, just that little bit preferable to the Wigmore Street coffeebar where, even so, I had one of each of their Colombian espressos.
Not only all that (!) but the Finca Tamana Espresso that I have been drinking at Workshop coffee these past two visits (28th June and 12th July) tastes even better than the previous Columbian - from Finca Asturias - that I had been enjoying so much
With the absence, for a while, of the longstanding espresso blend Cult of Done Espresso (now v.17) that is my ‘reference coffee’ in these matters, I have been drinking one of each of the Colombian varieties and, this time, in both these coffeebars 
!
This, slightly edited, from their web-site:
“Since 2012 we've been purchasing all we can of the top quality lots produced at Finca Tamana; Elias Roa's farm in El Pital, Colombia. For the most part we've roasted the coffee from Finca Tamana for filter brewing, and have packed the coffee into lovely 350g bags, distributed to retail and wholesale customers a-like, shipping Elias's coffee all over the world. There will be (however) this fantastic coffee - roasted for espresso - in the main grinders of all our stores.
For the majority of the month of July (as long as our supplies last) we will be replacing our usual Cult of Done Espresso with Finca Tamana Espresso and using this wonderful Caturra selection for all of our espresso-based drinks.”
Lovely stuff!
After all the espresso and that v.good pizza on Saturday - and going solo - I met up with Richard at his home in Luton on Monday (14th). Normally, Monday morning is set aside for one of my weekly food/household shopping trips and I generally go to the Hoover Building (Perivale/Greenford, W. London). As we had planned lunch, I thought it best to get there early and shop in the Tesco ‘extra’ in Dunstable - 5 minutes by car from where Richard lives. Yet more espresso was consumed; two in Costa (inside Tesco) and the ‘PE blend’ alongside yet another ‘classic’ sloppy giuseppe pizza
. One of the not so good things about the Luton trips (apart from the lack of a Workshop Coffee!) is that, yet again, Bruton Place PE serves a better pizza. Having said that, without the comparison of other PE’s, Luton is just fine for this sort of thing... 
After awhile though, it does gets a bit much for me with the more usual routine making for ‘loads of espresso and a pizza’ happening only every three or four weeks. Recently this has become every two weeks and twice this past week. Still, it is rather enjoyable
!
Music-wise I am still playing Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) and now even play along to some of the ‘less complex’ numbers when ‘doing my trumpet’
Looking forward to mid-August for the next visit to London, so 'til then, and with less espresso for while, keep cool...
The Espresso Guy