Peckham’s Café Britaly to celebrate ‘Britain’s love-affair with Italian food’

Claiming only to be 'authentically Britalian', Café Britaly will serve nostalgic renditions of Italian dishes, viewed from the perspective of the British isles, alongside British classics updated with Italian ingredients.

Controversially, the Rye Lane restaurant’s take on spaghetti carbonara will contain cream and will be topped with a greasy spoon-style fried egg, while the ‘Full Britalian’ breakfast will include fennel sausages, fried pizza dough, and beans inspired by the Tuscan dish fagioli all’uccelletto.

Purdie, who was sous chef at Bocca di Lupo and most recently senior chef at Bouchon Racine in Farringdon, will be sourcing ingredients from trusted British suppliers, as well as noteworthy Italian importers. 

Designed by the pair themselves, the 40-cover site will have a muted mid-century-style interior and will be a reinvention of Italian-run British cafés. 

Walls will be adorned with bursts of colour from posters by great designers of the era, while green linoleum floors and banquette seating with pink detailing and cushions will be a subtly rose-tinted reference to the Italian flag.

The pair say they intend to create somewhere ‘genuinely hospitable’, blending the spirit of Italian adventure, diversity and creativity with the tastes, comfort and humour of the British. 

“From the 1950s onwards, Italian-run cafés gave many Britons their first taste of Italian food, served alongside more familiar native dishes, and adapted to their tastes,” says Crampton-Platt. “Café Britaly wishes to rediscover that legacy and revitalise it in a way that’s resolutely modern with a tinge of nostalgia.”

Purdie added: “In my career to date I’ve cooked rigorously authentic food across many traditions, and have the greatest respect for this inheritance. But with Café Britaly we claim only to be “authentically Britalian”, that lack of definition giving me a fantastic space in which to continuously play with and evolve my own style of cooking.”

Café Britaly is expected to open in late April or early May.