Is this the best new £7 sandwich in East London?
Plus: Dumplings by Paula's new Francis Road joint, Exale take over Leyton's William The Fourth, Forno comes to Leytonstone and cosy Coccole
“Let me start by telling you what we haven’t got.” It’s the Tuesday after the bank holiday and the smiling server reels off two thirds of the menu. There’s no butter chicken. No Szechuan beef. And no egg fried rice mayo. My hopes are — briefly — dashed.
Welcome to Earl’s, the latest incumbent of the Cann Hall Road skate park cafe in E11. It’s the second opening from Tim Vincent, enterprising owner of Leytonstone’s Back To Ours, the popular artisan cafe tucked away in Good Shepherd Studios. While that’s a somewhat scenic spot, its terrace overlooking a blossoming garden and pond, this new site is altogether more urban.
Within its fox-red interior (very apt), an open kitchen takes centre stage. This is where head chef Wahab is “slinging sandwiches of substance, made with very carefully selected produce,” Tim told me before the launch.
Last week, after glimpsing the intriguing menu, I predicted that Earl’s would become “the area’s hottest eating spot within days”. And that already appears to be the case. Wahab divulges that they shifted 200 sandwiches in the first hour on Saturday, the queue stretching right out onto the pavement. And then they did another 250 on Sunday, and a further 200 on Monday, selling out each day.
When I arrive on what I assumed would be a sleepy Tuesday, a crowd is clustered outside; it turns out a large walking group arrived a few minutes before me. Luckily, one spot is free inside, where there are a few seats — I counted just ten — but the reworked space feels bigger, unrecognisable from its previous incarnations as Belle de Juin and Patch.
So what’s all the fuss about? The cafe’s tagline is “sandwiches of distinction” — instantly, of course, creating a pressure to deliver. But the elevated menu truly is a delight to read, from spice poached chicken breast with ghee mayo and kachi-cumber to meat-feast The Earl, stuffed with coppa, mortadella, ham and lardo. Weekly specials include tempura fish fingers on “fry-days” and a bloody mary breakfast sando at the weekend. Mouth watering yet?
From the four remaining options (out of nine) including BLT and an “anti antipasto” roast veg and tapenade number — I settle on the Aubergine Parma-Ganoush. As it’s vegan, I think to myself, this will be the ultimate test on whether Earl’s can deliver flavour to a hungry flexitarian like me.
I needn’t have worried: as you can see above, it proves one hell of a tower. Laying the plate on the table, Wahab talks me through each ingredient — the focaccia is from Hackney’s Snapery East, incidentally — as he did at Back To Ours (see the recent review here).
Alongside fat slices of roasted aubergine, there’s a rich smear of tahini, crunchy fattoush, crispy fried aubergine, herbs, tangy sumac and paprika oil, not to mention an unctuous tomato sauce, oozing out of the focaccia. There may have been a sprinkling of the titular "parma” (parmesan), but if there was, I missed it. No matter: it’s as texturally interesting as it is layered with flavour, each bite delivering its own hit — although too eagerly I sink my teeth into the piping hot aubergine, which nearly burns my mouth.
I also make the faux-pas of asking for cutlery, a request initially declined: it’s hands-only, I’m told (I get it, I’ve been to Homies On Donkeys). Yet even so, this is next-level messy, its contents exploding out, rivulets of oil leaking everywhere. So, shame-faced I ask again for any kind of utensil that might help — and finally a knife and fork come my way. Phew.
Of course, if you’re not so bold — or indeed not so keen on public displays of glistening fingers, the other option is to gobble it in the privacy of your own home. But one thing’s for sure: this mighty £7 sarnie (they’re all priced between £7-11) suggests that the queue for Earl’s is only just beginning. @thisisearls
Hello, and welcome to issue #32. Well, it was quite a weekend, wasn’t it? Did you catch a show at the new Soho Theatre Walthamstow? Or immerse yourself in music at E11’s Shake The High Road? It was one in, one out for the main acts at St John’s Church — particular props to Glaswegian band Cloth and Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor — while, over at the Leytonstone Social, the glam Vanity Fairy held the crowd rapt.
Pictured above is another of the weekend’s highlights — the first ever live act at Leyton Calling, which filled Tilbury Road’s tropical-themed cocktail bar on Sunday evening. The Satin Dollz — with their sunny Americana vibes — were an elegant fit while sipping a signature cocktail or two; in fact, the whole stretch was alive, with the buzzing Partisan pop-up at Swirl and Chop Shop packed out too.
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Behind this week’s paywall:
Where Dumplings By Paula, who is soon opening her first bricks-and-mortar joint on Francis Road, is offering a preview this weekend
Blackhorse Road’s Exale Brewing take over King William The Fourth - Leytonstone-based owner Steph gives me an exclusive on what we can expect
The curious case of “Forno” coming to Leytonstone’s Church Lane
Coccole — why the bargain lasagne spot on Leyton High Road is so much more than that
The best thing about the weekly burger pop-up at Stone Mini Market
All this week’s food and drink news, hearsay and gossip
Home Kitchen: Dumplings By Paula’s taster of her new cafe on Francis this weekend
Francis Road’s erratic and under-performing Nasi Isda — which, when it first opened, I frequented for its decent-value sushi boxes — is to become something far more exciting: Home Kitchen.
While the name might not yet mean much, if you know about local streetfood icons (and there are many round these parts), you’ll have heard of Dumplings By Paula. And she’s the brains behind this new venture.