If anyone deserves a decent cobweb-banishing coffee, it’s a sleep-deprived new parent – so it’s a pity that genuinely tot-friendly cafés serving proper caffeine fixes and carefully created food are so hard to come by in the capital. And while many a maternity-leave mum has fantasised about opening a place that guarantees a warm welcome (mostly while sitting somewhere where toddler tantrums, spat-out fish fingers and bulky buggies guarantee cold shoulders instead), Green Lanes mums Sam and Ginny actually did it. Their aim is to create an extension of your front room, somewhere to unleash the offspring with impunity and take five.
The straightforward menu features deep-filled deli sarnies, daily salads and soups and, yes, a good cup of joe, while penne with tomato sauce, houmous and fresh fruit smoothies keep even fussy wee eaters on side. There are ballet and art classes, puppet shows and the like, alongside books, toys, a dressing-up box – plus thoughtful touches such as bottle warmers and bibs to make lunching with little ones that little bit easier. There’s still room for fine-tuning – the small counter overflowed with dirty plates on our last visit – but a room full of noisy newborns and knackered mums is inevitably chaotic and the loyal locals evidently forgive a little haphazard service for a lot of generosity.