Can Pretty Lattes Make Ralph Lauren Relevant Again?

Lattes, but make them fashion

Ralph Lauren is opening a Ralph’s Coffee at its U.K. flagship London store on New Bond Street as it seeks to add espressos and lattes to its polos. While Ralph’s Coffee and Bar on Regent Street already exists, this is the first standalone site in the U.K. for designer corporation, which plans to run a pop-up until 21 July before, slightly inexplicably, seeking to open a permanent coffee shop in the already densely populated centre of London. Rents and rates are probably easier to afford when you are Ralph Lauren.

For those interested in the actual coffee, ‘Ralph’s Roast’ leans heavily into American coffee culture — dark roasted drip filter, able to take a lot of milk and sugar — with espresso less of a priority. All of the ‘custom blends’ are ‘organically grown beans from Central and South America and Africa,’ which, with the traceability available in the coffee world, is an extremely low bar. Still, the most important question about Ralph’s Coffee is how long it will take until the logo outgrows the cup. [Propel]

And in other news...

• The BBC caught Uber Eats out with some gonzo barbecuing and a pretty obvious acronym.
• A new food waste initiative in Spanish holiday resorts Benidorm and Costa Blanca is being packaged as ... A war on Brits’ rights to load their plates at the buffet. [Mirror]
• Restaurant delivery platform GrubHub — which owns Seamless — has been buying up web domains to prevent small restaurants from owning their online presence. [New Food Economy]
• This 2016 advert for footlong sandwiches from Brazil is pretty intense. [Eater]
• Good tweet: