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This Iconic British-Italian Caff Is Leaving Its Home of Over 60 Years

Alpino Cafe will move across Chapel Market and rename as Casa Fabrizi, crediting the decision to a landlord who has “become greedy”

by James Hansen
A brick building with a white heading above its windows, on which the word Alpino is written in black capital letters.
Alpino's long-held premises at 97 Chapel Market.
Ewan Munro/Flickr (Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.0)

Alpino, the British-Italian London caff that has fuelled Chapel Market with plates of pasta, cups of tea, smoky kippers, and chicken escalopes since 1959, is leaving its premises and renaming.

Eater London contributor and custodian of Caffs Not Cafes Isaac Rangaswami shared photos of two whiteboards in the windows of 97 Chapel Market declaring that Alpino closed down on 31 July, because in owner tk’s words, “the landlord has become greedy.”

The message to customers goes on:

“We do not want to put our prices up for you to cover the extra cost. So we have decided to relocate across the road to 1 Chapel Market. We will be called Casa Fabrizi and we will open in September.”

Alpino is one of the best-value places to eat in central London, specialising in the daytime vernacular of British Italian cooking culture. Per Eater London contributor Jonathan Nunn, that involves "taking a mound of perfectly cooked, saucy spaghetti puttanesca that any Italian would be happy with and then adding three liberal dustings of parmesan, a whole chicken escalope and a cup of tea into the mix."

Eater has contacted Alpino for further information on the decision.

More soon.

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