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WestEnd Boys Can't Find the EastEnd Girls
Oct. 7th, 2006 02:08 pmSomeone once said that property prices go up the minute a deli is opened in a neighbourhood. I would think that's also the case for any cafes with quaint patio tables and rustic-style decoration. There's such a place near us, across Victoria Park, called The Elbow Cafe. We like to go there on the weekends, buy a cappuccino and sit in the park. There's always a group of scraggly-looking yuppies sitting outdoors, reading the weekend papers or feeding croissants to their toddlers (I even spotted a little-known actress once, reading a play). The cafe is right beside a small cemetery with no visible entrance, and is shaded by large sidewalk trees. Inside, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and bits of crockery that scream "AUTHENTIC" hang from the walls. It's all very neat, tasteful and a tad overpriced; but I'm of the opinion that such things are worth paying for if the setting is right and the clientele is interesting.
However, I've also noticed that the Elbow Cafe's staff are not very happy. The man who owns the cafe seems eastern european, and he fits every stereotype of a mysoginistic slav. Today, we witnessed him loudly attack his (female) staff, and generally make everyone uncomfortable. Then, in typical guilty fashion, he sliced a piece of ginger cake into tiny pieces and had them served as a complementary gift to all the customers. Kevin and I couldn't help laughing.
After our cappuccinos, we walked to London Fields and bought some broccoli and peppers at Broadway market. Again, I was surprised to see so many yuppies sitting outside bakeries, eating olives, drinking lattes and perusing the latest critically-acclaimed novel at the tiny local bookshop. Everything very nice and charming, but somehow wrong. I'd always thought of the Eastend as a bastion of English working class, grittiness and... I don't know. I didn't realize this was such a "happening" place. I suppose it's not a bad thing, though I'm sure I'd be annoyed if I was a local and suddenly all these "trendy" types bought all the property and pushed living expenses up because they had decided my neighbourhood was fashionable. I don't know what that makes me, who has just recently moved here. I suppose I'm happy for the aesthetic quality of so many art galleries, flower shops and shaggable urban types, but I can't help questioning the people who always told me the eastend was more "real" than London's westend. Turns out they were wrong.
However, I've also noticed that the Elbow Cafe's staff are not very happy. The man who owns the cafe seems eastern european, and he fits every stereotype of a mysoginistic slav. Today, we witnessed him loudly attack his (female) staff, and generally make everyone uncomfortable. Then, in typical guilty fashion, he sliced a piece of ginger cake into tiny pieces and had them served as a complementary gift to all the customers. Kevin and I couldn't help laughing.
After our cappuccinos, we walked to London Fields and bought some broccoli and peppers at Broadway market. Again, I was surprised to see so many yuppies sitting outside bakeries, eating olives, drinking lattes and perusing the latest critically-acclaimed novel at the tiny local bookshop. Everything very nice and charming, but somehow wrong. I'd always thought of the Eastend as a bastion of English working class, grittiness and... I don't know. I didn't realize this was such a "happening" place. I suppose it's not a bad thing, though I'm sure I'd be annoyed if I was a local and suddenly all these "trendy" types bought all the property and pushed living expenses up because they had decided my neighbourhood was fashionable. I don't know what that makes me, who has just recently moved here. I suppose I'm happy for the aesthetic quality of so many art galleries, flower shops and shaggable urban types, but I can't help questioning the people who always told me the eastend was more "real" than London's westend. Turns out they were wrong.
