The bizarro combination of a barber’s and coffee shop may sound like the worst of both worlds, but Porters is one in the eye for the cynics, including yours truly. The set-up is simple: haircuts out back, a teeny coffee station out front (in this case, a host of machines and brewing bits crammed on to a chunky old apothecary table). There are bags of beans from Union in the window, and the daily roast scrawled on a chalkboard (a Guatemalan Liberacion on my visit).
The menu is short and sweet: all your standard coffee variations, from espresso through to mocha. The flat white was decent – it could have been stronger but was dense with microfoam and carefully made. Don’t go expecting such fripperies as food or proper seating (although there is a tiny back garden and a bench out front) – this is much more of a grab-and-go caffeine bar. Not that the gilet-wearing, cockapoo-toting ladies of Dulwich Village seemed to mind; with extremely genial service and such a neat little set-up, Porters is a cut above.