After several mates kept telling me about Randolfi’s Cafe, I finally found …
February 23, 2026
After several mates kept telling me about Randolfi’s Cafe, I finally found the time to pop in and only then clocked how close it actually is to mine. I usually struggle to balance nipping into caffs or sandwich bars alongside visiting buildings, thanks to the full time architect life, but I am officially on one month leave so I can finally explore properly.
I went in today just before my travels start and asked two friends to join me. I even read a couple of articles about the sandwich bar beforehand. Estimates place this century old family run caff as having started trading sometime between 1906 and 1919. But reading the article on @theslicetowham I found out the third generation owner, Raymond Randolfi, confirms that Randolfi’s life began in 1912 at 508 Roman Road, 6 doors down from its current spot at 514 Roman Road. Being on Roman Road, the place sits right in that tight old high street grain, proper human scale frontage, nothing flashy, just part of the everyday street fabric that has seen years of graft and small businesses come and go.
The moment I walked in, the first thing I clocked was the wall paint. It felt super fresh and really eye catching, like someone had cared enough to give the place a lift without scrubbing its soul out of it. Then I noticed the timber panelled bar, worn in all the right places, the sort of surface that tells you how many elbows and cups of tea it has carried over the years. The space is surprisingly generous for a Roman Road caff, long and open so you can see straight down to the counter, which makes it feel social rather than tucked away. The floors and furniture feel built to last, practical and honest. We decided to sit nearest the bar on these old wooden chairs around a circular wooden table, mostly because I wanted to overhear the everyday chat and soak it in a bit. It felt like sitting inside the building’s memory, layers of use and routine stacked up in the materials. Turned out there was an elderly man celebrating his birthday right next to us, which somehow made the whole place feel even more alive and properly local.