The first, due to open next month, will be located on Mayfair’s Bruton Place and will have a total of 20 covers - 12 inside and eight outside. It will feature an open kitchen serving sandwiches and brunch with community bakers Chestnut Bakery supplying the cakes, bakes and bread.
Its flagship venue, to be located at 163 Piccadilly in St James, will follow a month later in August. The 1,800ft space will have space for 56 covers will feature the company’s first Brew Bar, a private space to host speciality tastings and informal classes.
The venue will serve a full afternoon ‘high coffee’ with specially selected coffee and tea paired with sweet and savoury food, also from Chestnut Bakery.
“We pay homage to London and the London Coffee scene. What better way to do that than such a prominent space in the heart of the West End?,” says co-founder Ed Parkes.
“It opens a whole new set of communities to us. We’re not arrogant enough to say we’re a British institution but we want the brand to exist in 100 years, it’s where we want to be.”
The Gentlemen Baristas was founded by Henry Ayers and Ed Parkes on Union Street in Borough in 2014 and currently operate seven coffee houses - four independent venues and three collaborative sites in office buildings – as well as a roastery in East London.