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Please note, The Larder has now closed. Time Out Food editors, August 2018.
If you’ve never heard of Fitzroy Place – site of the airy Larder café and deli, as well as its big brother Percy & Founders – that’s probably because until recently it didn’t exist. This new mixed-use whatever, a hyperreal private-public place at the top of Berners Street, is so shiny and new it looks like a CGI rendering. But step into The Larder’s light, double-height space and postmodern alienation suddenly gives way to cool cosiness, complete with bread, wine, cheese, long tables, sugar bowls and pot plants. The Larder is a very, very pleasant place to be.
The food? Well, it’s a worthy selection with a healthy, seasonal slant, but an eerily flavourless ricotta salad and a leaky scotch egg didn’t make the most of impeccably sourced ingredients. The coffee is good, however, and nothing’s too pricey, especially for Fitzrovia. Best of all, it’s now open in the evening, so you can drop in for a laptop session and stay for a glass of rosé. It’d be easy to write off The Larder as style over substance, but don’t; if you’re looking for a new third place, this could be it.