Oat and raisin biscuits

H&J Harbour & Jones

Coffee Society

Tuesday July 25^th 2006

Coffee-drinking in London dates back for hundreds of years, with London’s first coffee-house opening at the Sign of Pasqua Rosee’s Head in St Michael’s Alley, Cornhill in 1652. A handbill advertising this exotic new drink declared coffee to be “a very good help to digestion, quickens the spirits, and is good against sore eyes, dropsy, gout, King’s evil, &c” The British public took to this bitter, stimulating beverage and within a decade there were 3,000 coffeehouses in British cities and towns.

Today Soho’s side-streets are still home to two venerable coffee shops. With its old-fashioned, red-painted wooden façade and jaunty red-and-white striped awning, the Algerian Coffee Stores is a picturesque presence on Old Compton Street. Founded in 1887 by an Algerian businessman, the business has been in the hands of the Crocetta family for several decades, and is currently run by Paul Crocetta, together with his daughter Marisa. Stepping inside the shop, one is greeted by a delicious scent, of coffee, naturally, but also of fragrant spices, such as the ground cardamom used to create their Lebanese coffee. Behind an old-fashioned wooden counter, shelves are stacked with over 100 different coffees, around 200 teas and coffee-making equipment from traditional Turkish coffee pots to gleaming Alessi creations. Their most popular coffee is Formula Rossa, which Marisa says makes “a really smooth, creamy espresso with a big crema”. With the Algerian Coffee Stores offering bargain-priced take-away espressos and cappuccinos, Marisa often finds herself assuring her customers accustomed to huge, milky Starbucks coffees that what she’s made for them really is a cappuccino! This is a shop with a loyal following, with business sustained by wholesale supplies and a flourishing mail-order business. When it comes to threats to the shop’s future, Marisa has no doubts where the problem lies. “It’s 100% the rents,” she declares. “Rents and rates make it a struggle. We’re getting customers but we have to do everything we can, including staying open later, to raise the money. So many shops around here have gone because they can’t afford to stay.”

Down the road, yet another veteran Soho coffee business faces a similar struggle. Angelucci’s was founded in 1929 by Mr Angelucci, whose son and daughter, Andy and Alma Angelucci, still run the business. Unobtrusively housed in a tiny shop on Frith Street, Angelucci’s operates primarily as a wholesaler, supplying bars, cafes and restaurants, among them Bar Italia which uses Angelucci’s special blend Mokital. During World War II Mr Angelucci was interned, as an ‘enemy alien’, and his wife kept the shop going throughout the war. Her customers during this period included Odette Churchill and General de Gaulle, who bought the dark Brazilian roast. The 1950s saw the rise of the espresso bar in Soho. “Yes, there was the Mocha Bar in Frith Street,” reminisces Andy Angelucci. “and the Two Eyes bar. Cliff Richard used to sing in one of them. After the austerity of the war, it was lovely the coffee scene.” Over his decades in the coffee business, Andy has seen coffee rise and fall in popularity. “We’re back to coffee now and café society,” he pauses reflectively and looks across the road at a branch of Caffe Nero,”all there is round here is cafes, only a few shops left.”

The Algerian Coffee Stores 52 Old Compton Street, W1 (020-7437 2480) click to visit their website

Angelucci’s 23b Frith Street, W1 (020-7437 5889)

< H&J Home

Latest News

Archived News

Subscribe to our News feed

H&J News Feed

What are feeds? You can subscribe to feeds using any number of popular News Readers. Once subscribed a news reader will allow you to see when a website has been updated and read the new content without having to return.

Latest Press Cuttings

Why not have a taste of the Latest Press Cuttings