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Friday 14 May 2010

In Praise Of The Greasy Spoon

When I need to escape the 'always on' culture to focus on a piece of drafting, I print the document, leave my laptop and mobile and head for somewhere with seating that serves good coffee.

The start-up world, in particular, would struggle without using Starbucks and other coffee chains as offices and meeting rooms. Apart from the fact that coffee fuels innovation, those chains benefit from offering plenty of space and enabling meeting participants to easily pinpoint the most mutually convenient outlet via a single website.

Which is why their coffee ain't cheap - for little more than a price of a 'grande cappuccino', my local Greasy Spoon will add two fried eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomato, two slices of toast and friendship - at least by social media standards.

So while the coffee chains do offer a valuable service, we also owe it to ourselves to ensure the survival of Greasy Spoons by pinpointing them for others, and escaping to them instead of the coffee chains, whenever we can.

For the record, while based at Axiom I frequent Bon Appetit. I also thoroughly recommend Harris's (pictured), a long-time haunt while at Zopa. A discussion of this kind 3 years ago sparked about a dozen recommendations. A good list for London can also be found at Classic Cafes, and Caffs is attempting a national database of greasy spoons.

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