Guy and I went to the Princi Bakery yesterday for an amazing lunch. We discovered it during our Milan trip and were excited when we heard they were bringing their carby joy to London.
I don’t really think it has an equal in the capital. Most places selling baked goods are either focused on white bread ham salad sandwiches served up by a character that wouldn’t be out of place in an East Enders episode. If the atmosphere veers beyond bendy cheese then they tend to be very cake orientated. Princi however is a really sophisticated artisanal style bakery with all the style you’d expect from Armani than a place that sells pizza by the slice. Guy and I wound up having two slices each (too much!!) for a late lunch and then wandered around London for a while.
In true flâneur style we ended up having a very varied experience ranging from the sublime to the sub human. Stumbling across the extraordinary Sam Taylor-Wood exhibition at the White Cube in Mason’s Yard, Sigh was a video installation made in collaboration with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Essentially miming the act of playing their instruments the combination of the magically uplifting music with the instrumentless musicians was surreal. I was so entranced I made Guy sit through two runs of the video.
We also wound up playing dodgem cars at The Trocadero. It was my first and probably last time in that particularly dingy London institution. Vaguely resembling a panopticon with its hollowed out centre and very high levels of security, only with a myriad of grimy warren like holes filled with unwashed adolescents. If I ever plan to surprise Guy with arcade gaming ever again I can assure you it will be Namco rather than the Trocadero that gets my pennies.
Anyway, one round on the dodgems and we were out of that dingy arcade joint, just happening to stop by the Princi on the way home for one last shared slice of pizza and a bag full of baked goods to eat at home. My buttons are slightly stretched in the pizza photo, and I would hate to see what they would be like today after half a slice of tiramisu, a croissant and some brioche. I am a fat little piggy but feeling very satisfied.
Princi Bakery 153 Wardour Street London W1F 0UT