East London’s Cult Canal-Side Café Reopens for the Season this Week

Spring, for so many reasons, is a time to celebrate in the restaurant world. As well as well so many new openings to look forward to, a new bounty of ingredients at a chef’s disposal mean dishes take a brighter profile; longer days and lighter nights tend to mean fewer customers in hibernation. Few restaurants themselves actually entreat into hibernation, however. One that does is one worth knowing: Towpath Café, south of De Beauvoir, on the Regent’s Canal by the Whitmore Bridge.

So, it’s technically a café, but Lori de Mori, the owner and Laura Jackson, the chef, create for the spring and summer months one of east London’s best little spots for lunch — whether that’s an assembly of regularly-changing seasonal ingredients, like radish and cod’s roe (tick), or just a fine cheese toastie — as well as a buzzy canal-side sort-of-bar in the evenings, where Aperol Spritz and vermouth-based cocktails have been available for years.

The Towpath opened today, amid characteristically minimal fanfare (its website hasn’t been updated since 2010 when it first opened) with at least one Instagram user there to toast its return to service.

It is open six days a week: Officially Tuesday to Saturday from 8am to 6pm and on Sundays (busy) from 9am to 6pm, however it has not yet been confirmed that they will introduce a number of late-week evening services as they did last summer.

Just watch out for those running or cycling between Islington and Hackney (or vice versa), along the canal — as has been pointed out before, the Towpath’s location render those commuters (or athletes) a potential hazard (unto themselves.)