Esters | A café in Stoke Newington that you’ll never want to leave
In scientific terms, esters are ‘organic compounds derived from carboxylic acids’.
In London brunch terms, Esters is a Stoke Newington café that puts on one of the best morning feeds in the city.
Fortunately, we’re not here to talk about science…
Situated on Church Street – a street made for a lazy day, lined with all the essentials – Esters is run by the young and supremely-gifted duo Jack Lloyd-Jones and Nia Burr, who together source ingredients as close to home as possible, brew single-origin espresso to the highest degree and serve breakfast, lunch and on weekends, brunch, with a creative flair. It’s an endeavour many can get behind and such is evident by the queues that form as soon as they open from 8am each day.
Jonathan Simpson
If you’ve come for a dose of poached eggs on toast, then you may want to take a step back. They don’t do ‘the usual’ here. The scrambled egg-based breakfast sandwich is taken up a notch through honey mustard mayo & Isle of Mull cheddar, and their french toast is elevated to an almost unfair standard, served with things like forced rhubarb and preserved kumquat creams, or poached comice pears. For lunch, you might encounter a bowl of slow-cooked lamb shoulder backed by fermented leeks and green tahini yoghurt, or soy-braised pork belly with a coconut & peanut crema. The menu is a constant changer (such is life with experimentation) and needless to say, the produce is all local.
The level of baking here is something else, too. If you’re after a pastry, leaving with just one isn’t a possibility. Not when the counter has been graced with miso and white chocolate cookies (something some folks the come here for alone), olive oil cake (topped with cardamom crème fraîche légère) and an upside down polenta and ricotta cake made with blood oranges. It just can’t be done. And they also care deeply about coffee, with Hasbean’s ethically-sourced beans and various guest roasters making up their caffeine options.
While the inside seats at Esters are clean and modern with laminated tables, it would be such a shame if a place like this didn’t have a back garden full of flowers, plants and benches in the sun.
So it’s fortunate then, that they have one of those…
NOTE: Esters is open from Tues-Sat. They only do walk-ins, but trust us, Wait.That.Queue.Out, and have a drool at their Instagram, here.
Esters | 55 Kynaston Rd, London N16 0EB
Dinner plans? One of the best restaurants in Stoke Newington wouldn’t be a bad shout…