`The pink neon lights, that's why we took this place," says Caran Toland decisively, "You think I'm joking but it's true." She's referring to the gorgeous strips of pink light that line the windows of @ Home, a brand new cafe in the Creation Arcade off Duke Street. The pink neon lights are a good metaphor for the whole place which was created by Caran and her partners Bridgette Horszowski and Cormac Thunder in a blitz of innovation, recycling and more than a little DIY.
It's called @ Home "because there's so much fun you can have with the name, like lunch at home or meet friends at home" but Bridgette, who was the inspiration behind much of the design, decided to subtly continue the theme through the whole cafe. The kitchen area, complete with corrugated steel breakfast bar, opens on to a dining room with curvy, moulded wood chairs, dozens of pot plants and original art work on the walls. If you're in the market for a long bout of coffee drinking you can head straight into the "lounge" and flop into the comfy three-piece suite. A few shower curtains complete the home-away-from-home.
It looks great - smart but relaxed and with an air of casual trendiness that will be familiar to anybody who has hung out in any of Manhattan's East Village cafes. So it comes as something of a surprise when Caran and Bridgette start listing off the heritage of much of the decor - the suite was £20 in the St Vincent de Paul shop, the opaque animal print lampshades started life as cheap waste-paper baskets and the tea pots are oil cans.
"We wanted it to be a little tongue in cheek, different and as unpretentious as possible," says Bridgette, who is from South Africa.
And so to the food. Having spent many years as a chef in New York, this is mainly Cormac's domain - just as Caran's is the business side and Bridgette's is the design (the three estimate that together they can claim 45 years in the restaurant business). Coffee in elegant white mugs is served all day starting at 9.30 a.m., and mineral water and tomato juice come in big, glass goblets. They decided on a relatively small lunch selection which is all cooked from fresh daily and features items such as smoked fishcakes with a sweet chilli sauce as a starter and savoury lamb meatballs as main courses. Prices for a main course hover at around the £6 mark and the menu is changed fortnightly.
Dinner is available from Thursday to Sunday and is similar in style, if a little more hearty. Dishes such as spinach rigato and basil served with pappardelle and roast rack of lamb with a Tuscany white bean stew are well worth checking out.
There's an extensive wine list with a good house wine starting at £10.50, a wide range of New World wines and even an unusual red dessert wine, Mas Amiel Aoc Maury, "that should really be drunk with some very good chocolate". From 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. at the weekends it also offers tapas and wine, with an eclectic and varied array of proper tapas prepared by a Basque chef.
Caran says she already lies in the bath planning the next @ Home, but all three agree this cafe will always hold a special place in their hearts. "I sometimes feel it's our blood and guts plastered into the walls here," Caran says.