Fans of Dusty Knuckle’s wares rejoice, for the bakery now has a café: an airy brick and steel space across the yard from its original shipping container home in a Dalston car park.
On the walls, racks are filled with beautiful sourdough and rye loaves in three sizes. The counter is piled with a glistening, golden array of different buns, brioches, turnovers, savoury bakes and, if you’re early enough, doorstop sandwiches filled with imaginative ingredients like porchetta with garlic purée and sprouting broccoli or roasted aubergine with labneh, date dukkah and herb salad.
There are soups, toasties and homemade drinks too, as well as a great breakfast menu that includes unlimited toast and spreads for a pauper’s price of £2.50 – though an extra £2.50 gets you a bacon sarnie on potato sourdough that would probably set you up for the entire day. But then you’d miss out on the chance to come back at lunchtime, when the charmingly ramshackle interior is filled with sunlight streaming in from the yard outside. You can still eat in that yard, and the space is now open at weekends too. There’s also a social enterprise element to the business – the aim is for a percentage of the workforce to consist of young people who have struggled to find work elsewhere. All in all, Dusty Knuckle version 2.0 is a perfect year-round café.