LDNReview
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Pophams Hackney
Included In
Morning people and night people. Pirouettes and podcasts in the morning vs a series of failed walk-and-turn sobriety tests and toothpaste contouring. You’re one or the other, and restaurants are the same. Good in the day, but less so at night, or vice versa.
Pophams is different though. It’s a perfectly Hackney-fied industrial bakery that’s just as good at 7:30am as it is at 9:00pm. From excellent coffee and silence-inducing pastries, to lunchtime toasties that soak away the night before, to fine handmade pasta in the evening. In fact, you can actually timeline the Pophams experience.
7:40am - 7:42am
You arrive at (rather than stumble out of) a whitewashed warehouse space 10 minutes from Hackney Central. Pophams is a bakery, café, and all-round photogenic venue. It’s full of long shared tables dotted with morning types.
7:43am - 7:45am
Head straight to the ice cold water taps and scout out the room. The kitchen is bigger, shinier, and nicer than most London rentals. If Noel Fielding had creative control over Bake Off, it would end up being filmed in Pophams. The co-host would probably be an animate Glaswegian sourdough starter called Jasper. Or a talking Smeg. Stop it. You’re daydreaming. You need to order.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
7:48am - 7:50am
The counter is all curved wood and tiles and coffee contraptions. It’s a graphic designer’s Pinterest board. Get a coffee. It’s from Ozone and it’s good. Look at the pastry board: sweet and savoury. Order one/some.
7:55am - 9:20am
A ham and cheese croissant arrives at your table. So does a bacon and maple pastry. The pastry is salty and sweet. It’s swirled and glistening. It would mesmerise you if it wasn’t already being digested. The croissant is a mess. A brilliant, heavy, gooey mess. Eyes glance back over to the pastry board.
9:21am - 9:22am
Your stomach performs an impromptu rumble of Give It To Me Baby by Rick James.
9:23am - 9:24am
Powerful forces beyond your control are at work. Suddenly: standing, walking, ordering an almond croissant. Your stomach begins to hum Thank You by Dido. Its music taste is questionable, but its pastry judgement is not.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
9:30am - 10:59am
The room is in full morning swing. People are catching up over coffee. Emails are being sent. Meetings are meeting over a Marmite and cheese swirl. You wonder about the ins and outs of squatters’ rights.
11:00am - 3:59pm
Freelance o’clock.
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Pophams shuts at 4pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. From Wednesday to Sunday it opens for handmade pasta in the evening. So leave and go to the pub. Have a nap. Do whatever.
6:01pm - 6:05pm
Come back to Pophams for dinner. Note that none of the friendly members of staff have commented on you sitting outside for two hours. They are nice.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
6:10pm - 6:30pm
What was airy and bright in the day becomes intimate and candlelit at night. The long tables are now shared by people who look like they’re ready to be cast in a Noah Baumbach film. Start with the pickled vegetable salad. Don’t let any of the anchovy dip go to waste. It’s worth cleaning the plate for. Especially as portions aren’t huge here, and the menu is only four pastas deep.
6:45pm - 7:30pm
Everyone is chatting, sharing tables, and eating pasta. Is this heaven? No, there’s a disheveled pigeon tapping on the window outside. It’s Hackney. The cappellacci with tomatoes and lovage is first place on the podium. Then it’s the taleggio cappelletti. These two are must orders, and the ’nduja scarpinocc isn’t far behind. Leave the tortellini to the pigeon.
7:45pm - 8:00pm
Semifreddo, peach, and crunchy croissant bits. It would be rude not to. The cheese isn’t bad either. You eat pretty much everything and drink wine for around £50 each. It’s time to go home now.
8:05pm - 8:15pm
Seriously, go. You can come back whenever. Alone in the day. With a friend or two later on. Don’t worry. Pophams is good morning or night.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Bacon And Maple
Ham & Cheese Croissant
Almond Croissant
Passion Fruit & Mango Custard
Marmite, Schlossberger & Spring Onion
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Rosemary & Sea Salt Twist
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Cappellacci Dei Briganti, Tomatoes, Lovage
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Nduja Scarpinocc, Broad Beans, Parsley
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Taleggio Cappelletti, Grapes & Hazelnuts
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Pig Cheek Tortellini in Brodo
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli