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West Hampstead welcomes Gail’s

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Not just a bakery, but another cafe

Not just a bakery, but another cafe

So, Gail’s opened on time (now that is a surprise for a building project round here) and West Hampstead got all excited. The opening offers added to the buzz but Twitter was all aflutter.

It’s good to see that it has branded itself differently here to its other outlets – apparently it’s part of its approach to fit in locally to each area (though as the tweet below suggests, it may have some work to do in that regard.)

As with their other branches it is both a both a bakery and a café.

What was also noticeable yesterday was that the staff were in casual clothes, but it turns out they were mostly extra staff drafted in to help for the opening. Today when things were calmer, staff were back to black with maroon Gail’s aprons.

The manager said they were pleased with how things went. These upmarket grocers are on the pricey side…

…but if the Hampstead Butcher and Providore is anything to go by it seems that West Hampstead’s growing affluence means they’ll do just fine.

Free tasting at Finchley Road’s newest coffee house

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Set along the Finchley Road heading towards the O2 Centre is Remon, a little artisan bread and pastry bakery and coffee house that specialises in rare hard-to-find coffees and fine teas, authentic Sicilian Cannoli – traditional sweet ricotta cream pastries – and Arancini (risotto rice balls).

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The shop has a mostly rustic appearance, yet you soon discover the quality of the breads and pastries.

Freshly-baked pastries

Freshly-baked pastries

The coffee is pretty good too, we’re very knowledgeable about our coffees, which are sold as beans, or ground or to drink on the premises. Our house blend is a strong smooth mix of Central American and African Arabica beans, which will change regularly to keep up with the variations that come from every fresh batch of coffee.

Remon Coffee House is offering a free coffee and tea tasting morning this Sunday, February 23rd, between 10am and midday. This will include a professional tasting of some of the rarest coffees, including Jamaican Blue Mountain and Hawaiian Kona coffee, and teas such as Gushan silver needles and other first flush white/herbal and black teas.

A selection of Remon's specialist loose tea

A selection of Remon’s specialist loose tea

The event will let us welcome the local community into our coffee house to taste the many varieties of coffees and tea we offer. We hope it will establish us firmly amongst the finest coffee houses in London. We look forward to seeing you there.

For further details please see our Facebook page or come visit us at 225 Finchley Road, NW3 6LP.

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Loaves with heart at Hart & Lova

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Andrea Hartlova gets out of bed at 3.30 each morning to cycle from her home in Islington to her new bakery Hart & Lova in Kilburn, such is her passion for her craft.

Together with master baker Nicolas Juaneda, she produces bread, pastries and cakes and serves Monmouth coffee from the attractively bright and airy Belsize Road shop and café, which opened earlier this week.

Andrea has an impressive baking CV. Having trained as a pastry chef at patisseries in her native Czech Republic, she moved to the UK 11 years ago, and worked at bakeries such as Euphorium in Islington. For the past couple of years she has baked cakes in rented premises in King’s Cross, and supplied her wares to outlets including Harvey Nichols.

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Her ultimate goal, however, was always to open her own bakery; she just needed the perfect location. She believes she has found this in Belsize Road, as she wanted her business to be at the heart of a small community with regular customers – not an anonymous high street shop “where you never see the same customer twice”. Belsize Road already boasts some popular businesses: Ekin, Cocoa Exchange, The Priory Tavern and Little Bay all draw regular customers.

Andrea says she already feels part of a close-knit community. The process of renovating the shop – previously an empty unit that had once been a video shop – took six months of hard work, as the building was in a bad state of repair and needed rewiring and decorating. In that time she got to know many neighbours, who would regularly pop in to check on her progress.

Now the wait is over, and the residents of Kilburn and South Hampstead no longer have to go to West End Lane or Maida Vale for freshly baked bread and pastries. Hart & Lova looks set to be a great addition to the shops on Belsize Road and should do well, whether customers are after a coffee for the morning commute, a loaf of bread at the weekend, or a cake for a special occasion.

Judging by the delicious samples West Hampstead Life tried at the launch event this week, Hart & Lova should be around for some time to come.

Izabela Szypulska, café assistant, serves a croissant

Izabela Szypulska, café assistant, serves a croissant