Nude Espresso is one of a few places which are at the fore front of the rising coffee culture in London. After a bellyful of Croydon chicken rice; Supercharz, Mark and myself headed toward Brick Lane for the Rankin exhibit, but not before we woke up to a cup or two.
Oh, and we’re calling ourselves the London Fm2 trio.
The interiors of Nude Espresso are basic. Wooden floorboards, white walls and yet more wood, but you know its nice and relaxing. The good peeps behind the counter dress insurmountably cooler than me, and sound very hip – it is very much part of the urban jungle environment that is associated with this area in East London. We ordered three flat whites.
Mmm, it’s not half bad, but honestly I’ve had better. I would like to think that I’ve been to many of the coffee hotspots around town, including Taylor, Monmouth, Flat White and Lantana. My favourite flat white so far, is still the version at Flat White; I’m no connoisseur, but I prefer it for its sugarcane aftertaste and also for its creaminess. The Nude version was not bad, but it lags behind both Flat White and Monmouth (a close second for me), of course all of it could just be down to hype and reputation, I wonder if technique has anything to do with the perfect cup of coffee. Those of you with laudable barista skillz, care to enlighten me?
Like many hip cafes around, Nude also sells lots of home-made cakes and sandwiches. Now I can’t remember if this was a carrot cake, or a banana cake (I’m leaning toward the former) but the icing was pretty good – very sweet, very decadent, if you like that kind of thing.
Charz implored that we try their signature lemon tart. I took one spoonful of the wobbly, citrusy and custardy action, it’s a good pudding, I wish I ordered one.
Now fully energised with sugar and caffeine, we began hatching our plans of world domination with talks of forming the greatest photo group ever to grace London…. by shooting with three Nikon FM2s. Charz has already bought one of the classic and most loved manual only SLR cameras known to man and we are now waiting for Mark to land another chrome version and arm it with a 50mm lens to complete the trio. They don’t make ‘em like they used to, and so we have to buy them secondhand, which makes it even more special.
Woo hoo. Viva la film and rock that zone focus.
Oh and the Rankin exhibit at the truman brewery was pretty good, worth the tenner, the celeb shots were impressive, I especially liked his Heidi Klum gallery. His 1000 portraits of normal folks, not so much. It was a little gimmicky.
Nude Espresso official site
26 Hanbury Street
07804 223590
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Tags: brick lane, cake, Coffee, flat white, nude espresso
What a nice cappuccino
Thank you for the complement, I did not even edit them too much, just little colour correction.
It was really nice to meet you finally as well.
I have few more photos I did not use in the post… one nice one of you, I will send you raw if you want.
Margot
My dad has a Nikon FM2 which he doesn’t use anymore; I may just steal it from him and have a bit of a play with it.
Agree that Nude flat whites are ‘nice’ but didn’t quite hit the spot. My fave is Lantana or Taylor St. That wobbly lemon tart begs to be eaten! Good luck with the FM2 domination!
The cake looks delicious, and I wish I hadn’t see that lemon tart – I’m in the mood for something lemony now!
Yeah, Nude. Hmm. It’s good, I reckon but I’m not trendy enough to get in the door half the time. Skinny jeans look bizarre on my rounded frame.
Glad to know I’m not the only one with film stock on the dairy shelf in the fridge.
Yvonne – thanks! Have you tried Flat White in Soho by the way?
Nicisme – Do try it – it has Charz zeal of approval as well, so it is pretty good
Monkey Gland – The film revolution lives! What camera do you use?!
I”ve got a very old Minolta Hi-Matic G which I found and a Nikon F301 which I bought when new.
The reason you notice the difference in the Flat Whites at Nude, is because, unlike other Antipodean Coffee shops, they only use a single shot, not a double. So do like I do, and ask for a double
Soy Latte – Hey thanks for this, very useful info – I now know to order a double shot