Sometimes when you’re wandering around London you want to stop for a coffee somewhere tucked away from the hussle & bussle where you can unwind before stepping back into the crowd, and places like Costa and Starbucks just don’t cut it for a number of reasons.

It’s down to the family run or small chains to offer up those unique little experiences with beans that weren’t made in some sort of cloning machine, cakes that don’t roll off of a production line, and service that didn’t come from a three day training course.

I was first introduced to Cafe Lido on Dean Street by Laurie many years ago before his departure to San Francisco; it was one of those unique venues, tucked just off Old Compton Street avoiding most of the mainstream customers who tend to crowd around Costa or Nero. Okay so it wasn’t exactly a work of art inside, with a gigantic fish tank, a toilet that really did not encourage long stays, but you got friendly service, a good and inexpensive coffee / drink, and teased by the choice of cakes.

Unfortuantely walking past Cafe Lido last week it seems that yet another venue has the now common place letter from the leaseholder pasted to the entrance stating notice of foreclosure. Time to start looking for another secret hideaway, if there are even many left.