A Mug at the Monocle Café
Cake and Fine WineThis week I paid £3.50 for a chocolate bar. A chocolate bar called ‘Crunky’. I don’t know quite what madness came over me. I was in Marylebone’s newly-opened Monocle Café, a spin off from Monocle magazine, and somehow I’d taken leave of my senses. Whatever force it was that was driving me was overwhelming, and I didn’t understand it, but I knew I was happy. Any power of independent thinking that I may once have possessed had been overwhelmed by slick Japanese-Scandi design, a slick international clientele, and the giddy but probably desperate hope that I might just pass as someone slick enough to belong there myself. £3 for a macchiato, explained the dapper staff. No problem. Would you like to try Tyler Brûlé’s favourite Japanese chocolate bar for the aforementioned eye-watering price? God yes. How about a Parisian macaroon baked by a London-based Japanese bakery? Oh, please. My wallet still hasn’t forgiven me, but I don’t regret a bit of it. Monocle – the magazine edited by Mr B
