Café Rossi, Borough

Café Rossi
57 Borough High Street,
Borough
London
SE1 1NE
020 7407 3718

by Molly Coddle-Degg

We trekked through London Bridge in search of shelter and nourishment. It was snowing. In April! Numerous menus tacked outside various restaurants had left us uninspired. How we were hungry. Desperately so, I realised, as we defaulted, zombie-like, into Slug and Lettuce. We stood inside, feeling sad, craving sausages, beans, eggcetera. There was no attempt to remove outerwear and sit down. We didn’t want to be in a chain pub considering the food options. This wasn’t how it was meant to be.

A handwritten sandwich board, noticed through a window. Did it really say ‘All Day Breakfast’? It did! Cue palpable joy and a hasty retreat.

Café Rossi. Busily peopled by trendies, builders, and trendy builders. Formica décor, green mismatched chairs, the specials proclaimed in biro, presided over by Signor Rossi*. If you look up ‘Mediterranean patriarch slash café owner’ on Wikipedia, it’s his picture that appears, at the time of writing.

Traditional Breakfast: two eggs, two bacon, sausage, chips, beans, mushrooms or tomato, tea or coffee. £4.50. Sold!

Though Signor was upset by an attempt to order food and drink in one go (“First food! Then drink” he roared), the rest was plain sailing. Jules was allowed both mushrooms AND tomato (“It’s two of my five a day!”), Vix able to substitute hash browns for chips.

“How was it?” Signor demanded as he took our plates. “Great!” we truthfully revealed – for it was. Every last breakfast item had been blessed by the greasy spoon and consumed with relish. Signor was then distracted by a Globe brochure. “Shakespeare!” he sneered. “I no like. Too tragedy. I prefer happy news! YouTube and MySpace!”

So, we invited Signor Rossi to come and see the Merry Wives of Windsor. He is still thinking about it.

*perhaps. Hopefully.