There is a growing trend of cafes and restaurants opening retail spaces. Here are some of the most interesting examples in London.

The phenomenon of the retailer that also wants to be a coffee shop or a restaurant has been fairly marked over the past few years.

From the John Lewis tie-up with Italian pizza chain Rossopomodoro, to the cafe that has grown and grown at cyclewear retailer Rapha’s Brewer Street flagship, there is nothing terribly remarkable about being able to eat or drink in a store these days.

But until recently, the process has not really worked in reverse. With the exception of a few restaurants such as outposts of the Hard Rock Cafe, eateries and coffee bars have been largely devoid of what might be termed retail.

This is changing quickly however, led perhaps by a couple of the large coffee chains and a raft of independents that have reached the conclusion that there is money to be made and ambience to be gained by making a carefully edited retail offer part of the mix.

The interesting part is the stories that underpin many of the retail offers that make an appearance in independent stores. They sometimes seem as much a matter of chance as any form of carefully thought through strategy.

Brill, Exmouth Market

Brill was a music shop that became a cafe that is a music shop. That, at its simplest is the story that underpins this cafe on London’s fashionable Exmouth Market.

The name derives from the owner, Jeremy Brill and the cafe, large parts of which were designed by the Wilson Brothers (best known for their work with Nike), was originally a music store.

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“We started out selling music and then had a couple of horrendous years in 2004 and 2005 as CDs began to die. The cafe bit was originally a machine in the corner and it just grew and grew. We’ve kept the music on the walls, but it’s the cafe that is now where the whole business is,” says Brill.

He points out that the many CDs on display and the recommendations, provided by the staff, create a sense of difference on Exmouth Market, which already has more than its fair share of coffee shops.

Walk into this cafe and Brill and team are busy serving artisan coffees and food and if music is desired, what can be heard is generally available to be bought. Although it is fair to remark that while the CDs and records on display may be interesting, they do not appear to change hands on much more than a sporadic basis.

Moreish Cafe Deli, Marchmont Street

Jenny Stern, the owner manager at Moreish, the ‘Cafe Deli’ on Marchmont Street, in the heart of Bloomsbury, says that from the outset the aim has been to reclaim the word “deli to mean what it used to mean”.

Practically, that means this is a cafe with a Spanish/North African flavour about it, but it is also a place where seekers of fine food can find items to buy and take away.

“I got fed up with delis becoming places where you can buy some cut meat and a few other things, rather than somewhere where you will find something different,” says Stern.

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The offer is set out on a reclaimed wood dresser that sits along the wall of the eating and drinking area. Behind the dresser, the wall has been covered in planking that has been painted grey and next to this there are blue and white tiles, in deference, presumably, to the cafe’s Moorish intent.  

The Moreish Cafe has been trading for a little over a year and in retail terms this really does function as shop and cafe. 

Starbucks, Westfield Stratford

The coffee giant has been a retailer for years and walk into almost any branch and there will be space that has been set aside for coffee-related merchandise.

This outpost has the usual wall set aside for merchandise which, as in other Starbucks, consists principally of packaged coffee, branded cups and the flasks that enable users to wander around with a cup of the brown stuff ‘to go’.

The ‘retail’ wall has been carefully considered, both in terms of the visual merchandising and the blackboards that inform shoppers they can buy beans in the store and have them ground in situ and that “Happy Days” (with the inevitable smiley emoticon) will follow.

Chains deal in modular formats that can be rolled out at speed and with relative ease.   

The Seattle-based business does just this with its retail offer and with something of the kind in almost every one of its outposts it could therefore claim to be a global retailer, as well as a coffee shop.

The Quality Chop House, Faringdon Road

The Quality Chop House is a restaurant institution that has had something of a chequered history over the past few years, being open, then closed, then open once again.

The current presence is the result of a relaunch in 2012, but it was not until the beginning of 2014 that the Quality Chop House Food Shop and Butcher opened, next door to the restaurant.

It could be said that this is a food shop that happens to be adjacent to the restaurant, but the co-branding dispels any such quibbles.

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The consumer is greeted by a store that is a cross between a farmer’s market – wooden crates and barrels are used as display vehicles – and what shoppers may remember was a food shop of old (although the memory does play tricks). 

The store is divided into two rooms with general provisions in one and an old-fashioned butcher in the other, complete with striped-apron staff.

It is very much a store where the emphasis is on quality and not looking too closely at the price, but the combination of greys, browns and black used to trick out this interior, make visiting a real pleasure. It also treads the heritage line without straying into the realms of kitsch.

Recipease, Notting Hill

Jamie Oliver is a brand in his own right and anything that he touches has his imprint on it.

The shop that is a cafe that is a cookery school in Notting Hill has all of the Oliver touches with book merchandising, high-quality ingredients and prepared foods and, of course, a cafe.

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The latter occupies the whole of the upper floor, but the retail side of things is the first thing that a customer encounters and the visual merchandising presents food as minor art.

Nothing is left to chance and more or less every element has been ‘art directed’. 

More to the point, this is one of the best examples of a new hybrid that puts retail and catering side by side in manner that leaves visitors able to enjoy both without having to pause and ask what manner of shop or restaurant they are in.