The urban guide to the countryside -
Cafés
-
Cool local cafés
Looking for a decent flat white off the beaten track? From rural barns to funky industrial spaces, follow me...
-
Chiltern Firehouse… to Hartwell Café!
Hartwell House café has upped its game, with a Chiltern Firehouse chef joining the team and brunch, lunch and afteroon tea all on the menu.
-
-
Gorge in Goring!
The vintage-inspired interiors at Pierreponts cafe in Goring, Oxfordshire will please your inner granny, but the food offering is bang up to date.
-
Pass the scones!
The Five Arrows, Waddesdon heads up our curated list of top afternoon tea spots. Now we just need to work out whether we add the clotted cream or jam first...
-
-
COWLEY ROAD CRAWL
If you always stay on the spire side of Oxford, it's time to venture across the Magdalen Bridge to the best pubs, bars and shops
-
Rumsey’s: Chocoholics unite!
Yes you can send your kids to a paint zone or trampoline park for their birthday party, but is there anything as perfect as a choco-guzzling exercise masquerading as a 'learning experience?' I think not. No, scrap that, I *know* not, because my 9 and 7 year olds just spent a morning at Rumsey's Chocolaterie in Thame, making the most amazing Easter chickens, eggs and baskets, and frankly now nowhere else will bleedin' do even for a cappu-frickin-cino!
-
-
Coffee under canvas
You'll want to put this place on your go-to list! Nicholsons yurt café at its North Aston nursery is a tenty triumph.
-
The Cape, Beaconsfield
It’s tough in the food business these days, isn’t it? So much choice for punters like us, and squeeeeezed margins for the owners of pubs, restaurants and cafés. What I’m seeing more and more of, in all kinds of businesses, is diversification – so a café like The Cape in Beaconsfield is able to offer […]
-
-
Cool corner of Didcot (*thud*)
Like Aylesbury, Didcot is a town that raises eyebrows when you mention the word ‘cool’ (yeah I saw you do it). But I’m not kidding, if you’re yet to venture to Didcot, head straight to the theatre with its funky architecture and promise of urban culture. I’m almost growing a beard and a bun just […]
-
Oxford’s hippest cafe
How many times have you gone into Oxford, tried and failed to find a cool cafe, and then settled down on pine farmhouse furniture for a carrot cake for the nth time? Not next time, because you’ll be able to put The Missing Bean in your walky sat nav and drink your coffee like the […]