The Thousands

It’s no revelation that brunch is a meal to be enjoyed between breakfast and lunch, and definitely not before 10am when throngs of cyclists offend the senses in their butt pads and clippity boots. Duende understand that breakfast is an all-day offering and even allow for those of us who don’t emerge for the first meal of the day until a time now known as brinner (4pm). If the stress of commandeering a table at that other café proves too much for you in your Sunday-morning state, we suggest strolling across the road to Duende.

Sit behind the newly extended bar, sip a locally roasted brew and make friends with the bottles of welcoming succulents. The breakfast menu is heavy on the savoury, but we forgive them because of the corn fritters. Good lord, the corn fritters! Golden patties of crunchy sweetness topped with flecks of hot smoked salmon, masterfully trimmed asparagus and the crowning glory; a perfectly poached egg. Cutting into that little beauty and watching the yolk drizzle on your fritter whilst surveying the lycra-sealed crotches from the other side of the road is definitely worth crossing for.