The café, which launched in 2010, is located near the Whitmore Bridge at the Hackney end of Regent’s Canal.
Since its inception it has garnered praise for its compact size (there are only a few seats inside, and diners eat at a handful of benches on the towpath) and regularly changing, seasonal menu.
Created by American Italian food writer Lori De Mori, Towpath Café offers breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The spring menu, designed by chef Laura Jackson, includes the likes of porridge with blood orange and muscovado sugar; fried eggs on toast with caramelised sage and chilli butter; squash, chickpea and saffron stew; monk’s beard, marinda tomatoes and tonnato sauce; and grilled cheese sandwiches.
Barista Amanda Thompson uses coffee imported from Caffe Piansa in Firenze, Italy, which is served alongside a selection of baked goods.
In the evenings the café serves alcoholic drinks including Aperol spritzes and wines.
Towpath Café is renowned for its status as a community-centric business, and regularly hosts events to bring the locals together, including the ‘canal clean up’, where volunteers were invited to borrow kayaks and grabbers to clean the rubbish from the waters between the bridges on the canal.