ANCIENT GREASE

LORELEI
21 Bateman St W1
+44 (0)20 7734 0954
The Lorelei’s vibrant exterior in Italian-flag colours is absolutely authentic, dating from the golden era of Soho’s café culture. Inside, the place looks and feels like a 1950s village hall: linoleum floors, square Formica tables, a tiny serving area, creaky wooden chairs and a mural of a mermaid. The outside shed privy is also a delight, with its 1960s plumbing left intact. The café’s old Cimbali espresso machine – the Bentley to Gaggia’s Rolls- Royce – pumps out a top notch cup. With its plant-strewn window looking out onto rapidly gentrifying streets, the brilliant dinginess of Lorelei is the perfect antidote to the identikit coffee troughs flooding the area.

L RODI
16 Blackhorse Lane E17
+44 (0)20 8527 4541
With the same family since 1925, Rodi’s has marble-mint Formica everywhere, alongside sparkling Vitrolite and chrome-edged tables. The amazing back room is a veritable café museum, lined with family archives alongside a working grandfather clock and black-lacquer bentwood coat hangers. Italian travel posters are everywhere, displayed along with family photos and period menu cards. Rodi’s is a superb time machine that has put down roots deep into its community. Café lovers come to worship at the numerous antique shrine artefacts, while locals rave about the sausage and mash with onion gravy.

GAMBARDELLA
47—48 Vanbrugh Park SE3
+44 (0)20 8858 0327
Run by the same family since its opening day, the building dates from the 1930s, and the moulded plywood revolving chairs were installed in the 1960s. Head of the clan Mr Gambardella is often there too, looking every bit the jovial Italian patriarch. There’s an amazing flesh-coloured Vitrolite and chrome front section, and a red and black Formica back dining room. The chunky chip dishes are enduringly popular, and local boy Jools Holland comes in regularly, demanding tea in his favourite mug