Esters is a café in Stoke Newington built around coffee, brunch and cake. The coffee comes from Ozone, the tea from Postcard Teas and the milk from Northiam Dairy, with Neal’s Yard Dairy and Little Bread Pedlar among the other suppliers. The kitchen cooks a short, creative menu from scratch with produce grown by small farmers in Cambridgeshire, Sussex and Kent, and sometimes in East London, and it turns out most of the baked goods itself with UK-grown grains. On weekdays there is breakfast, then lunch; on Saturdays an extended brunch menu runs all day.

Esters is a neighbourhood café with a garden. It takes no reservations and makes no exceptions, payment is by card only, well-behaved dogs are allowed, and laptops stay closed on Fridays and Saturdays. Saturday is the busiest day, and a short queue can form around the middle of the day.

The kitchen also bakes celebration cakes to order with seven days’ notice, and the room can be hired for birthdays, celebrations and Christmas parties.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Esters