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[title]Gingham curtains, dusty black pepper in glass shakers, checkerboard flooring and a framed photo of Bobby Moore lifting the 1966 World Cup. At first glance, Norman’s Café in Archway is just another greasy spoon. Look a little closer, however, and the Aesop hand soap, low intervention wine and La Marzocco coffee machine will enter your peripheral.
‘We’d always wanted our own café serving the classics,’ says Norman’s co-owner Elliot Kaye, who opened the eatery in 2020 with Richie Hayes and Alex Rapazzini. ‘We loved the idea of cooking and serving honest British food at a good price, with great produce and service.’
A pandemic baby, Norman’s began life as a hot-sandwich shop before graduating to fully fledged caff. Now it serves a daily menu that speaks to childhood memories and old-fashioned cravings – kippers on toast, jam roly-poly, and Spam, eggs and brown sauce– transforming into a wine bar on Friday and Saturday nights. You’ll struggle to find a dish on the menu for more than eight quid but if you are struck with sudden affluence, there’s a healthy booze offering (where else can you wash down a sausage-and egg muffin with a Negroni?).
It would be easy to write Norman’s off as rose-tinted but at its root there is a commitment to high-quality ingredients and a deep admiration of British food culture. ‘We grew up eating in these kinds of places,’ says Kaye, but he insists that the team are not ‘actively trying to replicate anything’. The result is a space that’s oddly charming and nostalgic: a shrine to London caff culture.
So next time you find yourself in Archway, pull up a chair at Norman’s, order yourself a set one and tell them that we sent you.
Find Norman’s at 167 Junction Rd, N19 5PZ. www.normans.co.uk