Appestat

ap·pe·stat: (ăp′ĭ-stăt′)

Noun:

And it is because we stock the fabulous preserves from our Holloway neighbours The London Jam Factory. Founder Pierre­-Louis Phelipot, a French native­born produces jams with 66% fruit by using what he calls ‘alchemy’. Every one has a notable twist in flavour combos such as peach, raspberry and rose, blueberry and violet or apricot and spices.

Local historian Rob Smith gets top marks on Trip Advisor for his guided food history walk around N1 revealing the secrets of meat, milk and the City from the last 100 years or so. Fascinating stuff. Next one is next month and book here www.footprintsoflondon.com . Stopping off with us for a hot chocolate afterwards would round that off nicely, wouldn't it?

Appestat prides itself on its strong offering of cheese but we are by no means the first to be proud of our dairy produce. In the 1750s there were 16 acres of grassland between Upper St and Liverpool Street where dairy farmer Richard Laycock had 400-700 cows and had others muster there on their way into Smithfield. it was one of London’s two largest dairies … both calling Islington their home. What is now the Business Design Centre was a huge agricultural hall.

The first Royal Tournament was held there, six day cycling events in 1878, cattle markets and the first Crufts dog show was held there in 1891. Urban dairies thrived in N1 and milk would have been sold straight from a tethered cow in the street. In the summer, and with no refridgeration, milk was preserved by making it into cheese. The essence of this tradition was maintained when Islington’s Farmer’s Market opened in 1999. And we are doing our bit too by selling produce as local to the shop as possible. This wonderful Graceburn, an organic cow’s milk cheese in herbs and oil, is produced by Brockley dairy Blackwoods. We stock all the best chutneys and buscuits too.

The fawn coloured robes of the Capuchin monks of Italy were the inspiration for this lovely creamy quaff.

If you visit us at Appestat or are mooching about in Islington you may well have used the tube to get here. One of the lesser known facts about the Angel Tube Station is that it hosts the third longest escalator in Europe at 60m/167ft. Take the stairs instead and drop off with us for a coffee and cake to get over the exertion.

We have so many top pantry items and a charcuterie and cheese counter it'll make your head spin. Let us make it easier for you with our set price meat and cheese boards. Perfect for pre or post dinner. Yum!

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/12/starbucks-faces-growing-rivals-as-coffee-wars-reach-boiling-point

"Love the people who work here, they lift your spirits in the most authentic way. The coffee is on point, gets me high all day, in a good way"

"Brilliant coffee...brilliant ethos. Very happy this place has opened up."

"Another amazing coffee at Appestat."

Coffee helps but try this Seggiano Sicilian Cherry Tomato Salsa we have instore. Made uniquely from ciligreno cherry tomatoes grown on the Ragusa coastal parts of Sicily this sauce is off the scale intense. It is grown by smallholders, the Arestia family, who have farmed tomatoes for two generations. This sweet, instant tomato elixir makes a perfect Bloody Mary or base for any decent pasta sauce. There is a big "PS" in this as the second photo was sent to us by someone who used this magical stuff to make Morrocan spiced tomato sauce to go with saffron and rosemary chicken.

This sexy beast (which is actually a VW Scirrocco) is a car that made the 210 mile journey from Manchester to London powered by ground coffee. Seventy kilograms of the stuff. At least the exhaust fumes would have been quite pleasant. The team behind it conception reckons the Car-Puccino will do 3 miles per kilo of ground coffee which equates to 56 espressos per mile. Plus refuelling stops every 45 miles. Not a cheap endeavour either. The coffee would cost up to £1800 with the petrol equivalent a fraction of that. So don't expect to be filling up with this anytime soon. The useful part is that the gasification of other materials such as landfill, walnut shells or woodchips could eventually make a positive contribution to the need for better eco-fuels. For the geeks this is how is works.