Avella's

Avella's has closed. The W1 cafe and sandwich bar which was previously a second home to many BBC staff, plotting, ranting, and bad-mouthing over tuna melts and bacon butties, is no more.

The Avella family sold up sometime ago - and a new owner tried modernisation, a few health and safety standards, and a new pasta menu. No more the "Vegetarian Job" - mozzarella, black olives, basil and tomatoes in a toasted ciabatta - "Sicilian" (Italian ham with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil) or the American Dream bap (roast beef, gherkins, mustard and mozzarella).

It was the weird family dynamic that made you come back - I offer this insightful review from The Randomness Guide to London.

To the uninitiated, Avella's Cafe seems like just another London sanger shop which serves traditional greasy spoon fayre in the morning. However, the beauty in Avella's is the relationship between the family who run the shop - Mum, Brother and Sister (and possibly Dad? Not sure...) bicker and make faces behind each others backs, winking knowingly at customers and encouraging banter with regulars. The jokey insults aside, I feel like there's conflict simmering between every conversation they have, whether it's Mum asking Sister to peel some hard boiled eggs or Brother asking where the ciabattas are. You can't get this kind of thing at Subway.


For me, Dad, a silent inferno, was the driving force, wielding frying pans, grills and antique coffee machines in a square foot of space - turning out Full English within minutes, yet dressed like Tony Bennett after a Vegas show. I think things started going awry when he started dyeing his hair, but I could be wrong...