Abuelo

Abuelo is an architect-owned and designed independent cafe on Southampton Street, the run of shops and eateries that links the Strand to the Covent Garden piazza. It opened in 2018 inside a Grade II listed building dating from 1720, and it celebrates the owners' Australian and Argentinian heritage by combining modern Australian hospitality with Latin American speciality coffee.

The coffee is the anchor: award-winning single origin beans from Latin America, rated by the Speciality Coffee Association and sourced from farms that are sustainably and ethically run. The food menu showcases fresh produce through Australian-style brunch dishes with an Abuelo twist, working with small producers including Estate Dairy, Happy Bee Honey and Windrush Valley Goat Dairy. Natural wines come from a selection of independent growers, and the batched, bottled cocktails are made with Tayer + Elementary, named among the world's top five bars.

An Australian brunch cafe in Covent Garden

The room was designed to feel like the dining room of a homestead. A long bespoke table is flanked by antique nineteenth-century Australian homestead chairs, set on a hand-made rug over hand-made terracotta floor tiles, with a large faux fireplace at one end. The counters and fireplace were made in the owners' own workshop from New South Wales Spotted Gum timber, three large oil paintings by Robert Klein Boonschate depict rural Australian landscapes, the textiles are by Pampa and the light fittings are hand-blown pieces by Ross Gardam. It is a considered Australian brunch cafe rather than a grab-and-go counter.

What to expect on a visit

Abuelo opens from 8.30am on weekdays and 9am at weekends, closing at 5pm every day, so treat it as a daytime destination for speciality coffee, brunch and a glass of natural wine. Covent Garden and Charing Cross stations are both a short walk. For another independent coffee stop nearby, see Amelia on Bedford Street, or browse all Covent Garden cafes.