Interior
The interior has a really smart and welcomingly informal feel to it. The coffee bar has been constructed out of scaffolding and is very neat. The cheery counter staff made the welcome warm.
Later in the day they have soup from Union of Genius, but around breakfast time it’s pastries from Manna House that are at the core of their offering. This sits alongside their usual excellent coffee, which on my visit was from Berlin roastery The Barn. They have a licence, too, so have a good little selection boozes, although that wouldn’t have been the smartest play to start the day, even if it is Festival time.
As I mentioned in my Festival round-up post, I’ve been dabbling in the world of Periscope, so I did a little live broadcasting of my inelegant mashing of an almond croissant, notionally into my mouth, but in reality mainly down my tie and into my beard.
Exterior
One downside of the Periscoping has been a little dip in capturing things in photo form, so apologies for the lack of pictures of the espresso (£2) and croissant (£2.40). I’m sure you can imagine what they looked like before I started fiddling around with them in the hope of gaining nourishment.
Both items were really tasty and worked very well with each other as the bright espresso had a little almond note lurking in there. This complemented the croissant to very good advantage.
So overall, Machina is doing very good work so demands your prompt. I hear they have a late (3am) licence, too, so it could be a good spot for a relaxing later evening visit. You will be as impressed as I was.
