IRENE

london takes its specialty coffee seriously, and the competition for your morning loyalty is genuinely fierce. irene, on bell street in marylebone, has built exactly the kind of following that comes from doing a small number of things well and consistently. the nw1 crowd knows where to find it. what keeps people coming back seems to be the combination: coffee alongside a proper bakery offering and breakfast, which is a fuller package than a lot of specialty spots bother with. you can lean into a single flat white, or you can make a whole morning of it. bell street isn't a high-footfall tourist strip, so the people who end up here mostly mean to be here. start with breakfast, then see how the coffee sits.