With thanks to both Dose and Little Miss Random for recommending Bea's of Bloomsbury. The former has its sweet things and some of the savouries sourced from Bea’s and the latter coaxing me with the La Marzocco coffee machine on duty.
Bea’s is located in an area of London that dramatically morphs into a tumbleweed alley as soon as the weekend approaches. The architecturally contrived interior belies its indiscreet and rather dour shopfront.
The serving/eating area that houses an amazing display of cakes and bakes is dark (very much like its website), whereas the open kitchen/bakery towards the back is bright and lively; all very ying and yang. Despite the ample floor area of the whole operation, seating capacity is pretty limited (20ish methinks).
The high ceilings thankfully compensates for the noirish room although I can’t help but nag at the strange choice of ‘regency style’ chairs used, they're in total conflict with everything else in the café. The service is trying and efficient; it just lacks that certain warmth that you find elsewhere.
La La Marzocco, all very prodigious and taking no prisoners.
The Large Square Cappuccino- this has gotta be one of the most beautifully made cuppas I’ve set my eyes on! Unfortunately it didn’t taste at all awe-inspiring, with utter respect to the barista and la Marz, it was only a deflated grade C! Half an hour later I popped over to check my sensory buds out at Wild and Wood; the glorious cap there was an incredible grade A! I can see that the knives are out for me, help, I’m not affiliated to Monmouth! Look I’ll go for the spiced chai recipe ('London's best', Time Out) or Valrhona hot chocolate next time.
Now after the mother of all sandwich experiences at F&W yesterday, this sarnie proved to be a lot more sedate in every way. What Bea’s called a meat baguette, it was basically a BLT and quite decent to boot.
You see the thing with this sort of BLT sandwich is it’ll never taste as good as the ones (sow stall Danish bacon, bleached white bread and loads of brown or tomato sauce) served in greasy spoon cafés; the truth hurts and I’m certainly not ashamed of saying it. This is not a dig at Bea’s, but a valid (albeit cynical sounding) rant that defaulted out of necessity. The next time I come here I’ll plump for the soups and wonderful looking salads instead.
A piece of one of the most incredible cakes I’ve ever had. This is dedicated to Thora; whose indulgence for this sort of thing has been temporarily put on hold.
Folks, this is the amazing German Chocolate Cake- a truffle cake filled to the brim with dulce de leche (milk caramel) with toasted coconut and nuts! I haven’t tried the one at River Café, but this is quite simply the Chocolate Nemesis in its own right!
OMG, Valrhona Chocolate Brownie, Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Cookies. This lot and that aforementioned nemesis deserve the clichés of all clichés. I’m going for profound and historic. If it’s going to be death by chocolate for me, then there’s no better place than here! Bea’s is rightfully a destination place for cakes and bakes. More reports in soon, in the meantime bask yourselves here and pile on the pounds!
44 Theobald's Road
London WC1X 8NW
www.beasofbloomsbury.com
Thank you! Although I'd rather go for yesterday's raspberry tart I do admire this piece of chocolate art - it looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteOh my! That slice of chocolate cake! I have a bit of a 'thing' with sweet foods - I like to do it really full on or not at all. This looks like it might suit me very well. I was hoping that was dulce de leche in there and I may have made a little noise out loud when I read it was.
ReplyDeleteThora- I'll just have to hunt around for another fruity thing and devour it on your behalf!
ReplyDeleteHelen- It's amazing how posh dulce de leche sounds when burnt condensed milk is just so uncool!
Can anyone tell how to do this peanut butter cookie?
ReplyDelete