Classic Cafes & Nostalgia

The other morning I received this fantastic book that I purchased second-hand for £28 – Classic Cafés, published in 2004. I ordered it in a bout of nostalgia when I was in Whitecross Street near the Barbican and it reminded me of the blog that the book was a product of – there’s a café in the area that featured on the blog. And I holding the book that morning it was a double whammy of nostalgia both for the era that produced the blog and the book, and of course the book itself is an exercise nostalgia for the era of greasy spoon caffs and formica tables 1950s / 60s espresso bars and all that. In both senses it felt like the nostalgia for a fallen age. The fallen age of blogging before it became content. But also it dovetails with an experience I had recently that I was going to write about but wasn’t sure how to approach it. I went out to one of the nice local coffee shops, one that sells fantastic Italian pastries and they have a lovely sunlit upstairs room and I fancied sitting up…