Cooper & Wolf

Cooper and Wolf are the owner’s cats, and the premises was an old glass shop until about nine months ago. But Cooper and Wolf the cafe have created one of the most welcoming spaces in Hackney to partake of coffee and cake. To be honest, even if they hadn’t, I’d have made a beeline for this place, because after an ill-advised stroll on this iciest of days I’d gone far enough down Chatsworth Road to be somewhat out-on-a-limb as far as finding places to take refuge from the elements went (OK, only five minutes’ walk from the hub around the junction with Dunlace Road but hey, it’s cold out there). So in I came, shivering and huddling into my jacket, and only once my fingers had thawed did I take in (indeed, drink in) my surroundings.

The old shopfront windows let in a lot of light, and the biggest ones have a bar along which pensive-looking types browse the stash of newspapers and leaflets on reiki, salsa, gigs, organic markets or whatever else is going on in the rejuvenated Clapton these days. The other side of the room has a piano piled with books that form the Cooper and Wolf book exchange, and here’s the most inviting table (beaten and secondhand and surrounded by rocking chairs and those lovely street-facing windows) and, fortunately the one which became free just as I came in.

Cooper and Wolf

Round the corner are the other tables (today occupied mostly by couples involved in ardent conversation) and the menu boards, which indicate the enticing Scandinavian theme to the food that’s on offer. Of course, though, I didn’t care about that quite so much as the cake, but right below the menus: exhibit A: humungous almond croissants and hearty wedges of chocolate and Guinness cake lining the counter. I went for a piece of the latter and a latte (I go for lattes these days as you can drink more of them if, like me, you have to spend a lot of time idling in cafes – espresso makes you wired and slightly crazy after more than two) and perused the art on the walls which fortunately, thanks to its Chatworth road-centric focus, with local Chatsworth road celebs painted mugshot style, falls into the category of interesting rather than shit-art-in-cafes.

The latte, with beans roasted at Exmouth Market’s Caravan Coffee roaster, wasn’t half good. The owners did after all meet over a coffee so probably making a good one is, well, close to their heart. But I want to spend the rest of this post talking about the cake. I don’t know if Guinness flavour is a recent St Patrick’s Day-influenced cake flavouring experiment but good God, it works in this case. The Guinness flavour is really subtle but gives the chocolate cake that slightly bitter, moist backlash – it sticks to the roof of your mouth as you swallow. Dowse that in creme fraiche with blueberries and raspberries and you really do have a little piece of heaven.

And on the Scandinavian side? Well, the owner’s wife is Swedish, and in his words, what’s cooked up is “great memories from childhood”-type Swedish food. Open sandwiches, for example, with Swedish meatballs and beetroot salad (£7). Or Gubbora, which is a kind of egg mayonnaise with red onion and apple, served up on sourdough (£5.70). And they do Swedish breakfasts at weekends… note to self: RETURN!

Oh well, back out into the cold to do things…