The Attendant, Coffee In a Gents Toilet: London

A somber day in London Town.  Cement sky.  Paving stones glistening.  An invitation to hurry, slip hard enough to show your soles, toss your arms to the sky on your way down,  and bust your ass.  In short, typically London.

So, I got up in the morning

And hurried without warning

Grabbed a coffee in the toilet

Made sure that I could boil it

...help me finish this country-rock ditty.  Feel free to add some “Taking Care of Business” and other apropos Bachman Turner Overdrive touches. 

Not referring to your normal toilet, of course.  Perish the thought.  I do have limits. At least I think so. This coffee toilet sits in London, on the corner of Foley Street and Great Titchfield Street, right outside the Crown and Sceptre pub. (Tubes: Goodge Street, Oxford Circus)

Follow your nose down the stairs, speaking of the coffee, of course.  Find yourself in an underground 1890s men’s room, carefully updated and restored, but mostly intact.  Order a coffee and some cake, plant yourself on a stool in front of one of the original, heavy ceramic urinals, and prepare to be impressed. The tiled walls are as they were, as are the overhead water closets.

Men’s room?  So, you think I’m kidding?  Hey, this is London and having coffee in a men’s room is as normal as seeing men with purple, spiked hair wearing $6000 Savile Row suits.  The Brits are surprisingly subtle in manner and couture, but once they go off the reservation, watch out!

So, I settled back and quizzed the baristas.  Neither of them Brits.   This Victorian era men’s room closed in the 1960s and sat dormant for some fifty years before a two-year deep cleaning brought it to bright and shiny perfection in2013.

But what about the coffee???  Damned if I’d want to sit in a old men’s room and sip black tar.  The Attendant sources it’s beans from London’s own Caravan Roastery, whose products are lauded as the best in London.

The coffee is smooth and full flavored. I drink my coffee with milk.  My companion ops for black.  Have to say, an excellent brew.

The noshes looked succulently tempting, but I held my grounds….hahaha

By the way, The Attendant was named runner-up Best Coffee Shop in London in 2013.

Only one drawback to The Attendant, no mens room.