Rakewell is no stranger to enjoying a good meal. Your roving correspondent is also a particular fan of art deco interiors, especially when they are listed. By rights, then, the London caff E. Pellicci should be one of our favourite places to go. Judging from the now endless queues that wind down the Bethnal Green Road at the weekend, it is clearly quite a lot of people’s favourite place to go. But now, it seems, they might no longer have to queue: the high-end art publisher Phaidon is set to release the definitive E. Pellicci: London’s Most Beloved Cafe [A Cookbook] early next year.
It is not hard to see why Phaidon might want to do this. Pellicci has attained a level of fame that many Instagram influencers can only dream of – it now has overflow seating on the pavement to accommodate so many hungry diners. The ‘deep custard-coloured Vitrolite frieze’, as English Heritage characterises it, is a rare ray of sunshine on that side of the road. Those listed interiors, with marquetry by regular customer Achille Capocci, contain some of the most pleasing panelling in the city. They are so charming that Harry Styles filmed part of his video for ‘Late Night Talking’ (2022) there.
Slightly more confusing is the choice of author for the foreword. Kristin Scott Thomas does not naturally leap out as the voice of London caffs. Still, anything KST does can only be a classy affair, so Rakewell is sure it will be all right in the end.
Yet your correspondent is troubled that part of the history of the celebrated eatery might be being airbrushed out. Local boys the Kray twins are said to have frequented the cafe in the 1950s and ’60s. Although Rakewell never witnessed this, we once spoke to a friend who suggested that part of the magic of Pellicci extended beyond the service at the table. This friend was completing a theatre design degree had returned home to find the entire set that she had been working on for months had disappeared from her garden. As she tearfully recounted this story at the cafe, the waiter interrupted and said, ‘Principessa, why are you crying?’ She explained. ‘Leave it with me,’ the waiter said. When she returned home that evening every piece of the theatre set was waiting for her at the front door. Will the Phaidon cookbook be able to recreate that magic?
