Fabrique

Fabrique is a Swedish bakery two minutes away from Hoxton Station. They specialize in homemade bread, and their cinnamon and cardamom buns are a delight.

Charlotta and David fell in love while working together in a bakery in Stockholm. Together they shared a common dream: open their own bakery. After studying finance and working for several years in the sector, the dream became reality. Together they opened the first Fabrique in Stockholm in 2008 and in late 2012 they opened one in London, the first outside of Sweden.

The smell of baking bread and cinnamon greets you as you enter. In the background, the bakers work on an open table to make bread, buns or other treats. Charlotta assures me that the products are “honest and transparent”. If you have time, you can watch the whole process and see for yourself. The tables are just a few feet from the large wooden table where the dough is shaped. The flavour doesn’t lie, the ingredients are high quality.

The bread is priced by weight. They have a rye bread that follows a Danish recipe, and sourdoughs known as “pain au levain” and nut bread. The forms vary, and can be enjoyed as a baguette, bun, bar, loaf…

If you can only choose one thing, the cinnamon buns as well as the cardamom buns are equally amazing. Their texture is soft and their size is perfect. The sugar that covers them melts in your mouth and the butter gives it a softness that only artisan dough can achieve. Furthermore, they have raspberry muffins, croissants and pains au chocolat following French recipes and cranberry bars.

Savoury options include breakfast sandwiches and larger ones for lunch. Options obviously include ham or salmon.

Max, the barista, makes the coffee from beans chosen by the owner David, which come from a small farm in Brazil. At Fabrique they have their own provider who they negotiate with directly. After toasting the beans at Johan & Nyström in Stockholm, they arrive in your cup. They sell all the regular coffee options: espresso, macchiato, americano, latte, cappuccino as well as the cortado. The coffee can be taken to go and you can also buy beans to take home.

Named one of the five best artisan bakeries in London by Financial Times, Fabrique is a must see for anyone interested in traditional, quality bread.