Please note, Foxcroft & Ginger has now closed. Time Out Food editors, May 2018.
Whitechapel Road and its continuation Mile End Road got a good scrubbing up for the 2012 Olypmic Games, and this all-day café and bakery in the old Wickhams Department Store is a sign that the trendies are moving in. As with the original Berwick Street branch, all bread, cakes and pastries are baked on site and available to take away; the sourdough appears in many of the innovative breakfast dishes (served till 4pm at weekends), such as 63C slow-poached eggs on toast, french toast with mascarpone, walnuts and banana, or spiced aubergine with labneh, halloumi and mushrooms.
The area’s young creatives clearly love F & G, as even on our early days visit it was packed with laptop-tappers, lazy brunchers and solo coffee sippers (the smooth pour-over filter is worth the wait). The raw industrial stylings no doubt help, as does the lure of a couple of Camden Brewery beers on tap, wines by the glass and thin-crusted pizzas in the evenings – those bread ovens are put to good use.