Velasquez & Van Wezel

Oscar grew up on a farm in the Colombian Andes east of Bogota where coffee was grown and roasted, and Martin grew up in a small town in the eastern Netherlands where his grandfather sold loose beans from tins in a corner shop. In September 2016 the two combined those backgrounds in a coffee bar on Park Road in Crouch End.

They do not roast themselves. Instead they curate, pairing a Square Mile house espresso with a rotating filter list from roasters across the UK, the Netherlands and wider Europe, brewed on V60, Aeropress and batch filter. The room is light and bright, with a Victoria Arduino Black Eagle on the bar and tables out on the pavement, and the team puts real effort into training baristas.