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The best coffee in London. We only list places that take coffee really seriously.
A 1949 Italian bar on Frith Street, still the Polledris’, still going when the rest of Soho has shut.
Also in Cocktails.
The Polledri family opened it in 1949 and their grandchildren have it now: a long counter, chrome stools, Formica, Italian flags over the door and a television on at the back. The room above is where John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television, on 26 January 1926, and the blue plaque for it is over the front door. Pulp put a song called Bar Italia on Different Class in 1995, which is how a good many people know the name without having been. It keeps Soho’s hours rather than a café’s: the counter is busiest when everywhere else has shut, and after dark as much Aperol spritz and cold Peroni goes across it as coffee.
Outside tables
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Photo by SomeDriftwood from Liverpool, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.