Most of the time, the ideas that two dudes have when they’re out drinking together are not good ideas. But we have to hand it to Londoners Pete Tomlinson and Ben Russell: Their pub-side brainstorm to create a coffee and sandwich shop in an old public lavatory was pretty brilliant.
One day, whilst quaffing a pint in the pub on the corner of Great Titchfield Street and Foley Street, [the two men] were discussing how Fitzrovia needed a great coffee bar and New York style sandwiches. They looked up from their pints and noticed a To Let sign, right there, on the beautiful iron work of an old Victorian gentlemen’s convenience.
They did have to scrub the place down a bit. (They hired an industrial cleaner.) But now this little space has been neatly repurposed, and the old urinals provide a bit of privacy for the sandwich-eaters sitting along the bar. Plus, they’ve got primo ingredients: artisan coffee, milk from local, happy cows, and smoked turkey from a nearby family farm.
Tomlinson reassured the BBC that the whole place is quite pleasant:
Everything has been jet washed and the soil stacks have been concreted and capped … It smells beautiful down here now.
Plus, if your sandwich gets cold, you can warm it up with the hand dryer.
