Cremer in Hoxton: London’s Talk-of-the-Town New Café, Library Included

“Cremer is built on intention, every detail is considered,” begins Cremer’s help wanted listing. The new London café, a combination bakery/breakfast and lunch canteen, is fittingly located next to Hoxton’s Museum of the Home, an institution devoted to “revealing and rethinking the ways we live in order to live better together.” Cremer seems to have come up with some answers.

Designed by Oscar Piccolo in collaboration with modernist design dealer/curator Gennaro Leone of Spazio Leone, the restaurant— “like the home of someone with impeccable taste,” as one critic put it—features commissioned work from a coterie of rising international design stars, most of whom are foreign creatives in London. (Piccolo and Leone are both Italian and Cremer owner Ramzi Abou Chalach is French.)

There are communal tables; desk-like spaces to sit, eat, and work; a library with a beckoning daybed; plus granny chic objects and striped and checked fabrics mixed in. It’s a winning combination.

Photography by Callum Su, courtesy of Oscar Piccolo and Cremer.

Above: Cremer occupies a corner spot that was originally a pub. Ramzi Abou Chalach also owns Space Talk, the popular “listening bar” in Clerkenwell.
Above: The Roman antiquity-inspired mosaic in the entry is the work of M.C. Mosaics and Kevin Francis Gray Studio.
Above: Botanical silk curtains by London weaver Yumo Yuan were handmade for the space. The shelf with the hanging mug between the windows is one of a trio commissioned from “nomadic creative collective” Apohli.
Above: All of Cremer’s built-ins, tables, and benches are Piccolo/Leone designs custom made by joiner Byron Pritchard in his North London workshop.
Above: The entry opens to the bakery with impressive display shelves of aged quarter-sawn oak.
Above: Pastries are served in wooden trays with checked linen mats. This is a strawberry and peanut danish. On the menu: Spanish egg toast, house baguette with butter and gooseberry jam, roast pork sandwich on just-baked bread, gazpacho, sheep’s cheese dumplings, and croissant ice cream.
Above: Beyond the bakery is the restaurant. Piccolo says Cremer is “a warm, intimate space built through friendship, conversation, and a shared love of making.”
Above: Anchoring the dining area is a painting by Nick Jensen whose work has been described as “reminiscent of bleary-eyed train journeys.”
Above: The minimalist communal tables and benches are quarter-sawn oak and sweet chestnut. Wall sconces of “eco resin” are by New York art lighting studio Cadis represented by Tiwa Select,
Above: The benches are cushioned in a faded stripe.
Above: Behind the shelves is an open kitchen.
Above: Vintage crockery is mixed with simple white restaurant ware and classic flatware.
Above: Fill up your own water at this antique Dutch ironstone fountain. The modernist chair and other vintage designs are from Spazio Leone.
Above: An 8-by-8 foot Douglas fir table and Vico Magistretti’s 1960s Carimate Chairs by Cassina in the library. The paper and steel pendant light is a made-to-order piece by artist Nick Metzler, who is represented by Spazio Leone.
Above: A reading nook amid the books.
Above: The daybed is the work of Hawa Al-Najjar, an Iraqi-British multimedia artist and designer who writes that her work is about “exploring objects and furniture craft through the lens of history, cultural exchange, and craftsmanship.”