Curators Coffee Studio

A flat white at the counter and a seat in the covered passage outside is the usual shape of a visit to this compact City coffee studio.

A small counter with a serious bar

Curators Coffee Studio has been pouring since March 2012, and the studio name is accurate about the footprint: a rectangular corner space with the counter at the back, a window bar seating four, and a couple of stools by the door. The coffee has always been the point. The bar runs a La Marzocco with colour-coordinated grinders beside it, and the house coffee now comes from SEND Coffee, whose cafés double as training sites and whose single-origin and single-varietal lots are assessed by dedicated Q graders. Before that the espresso came from Nude Espresso with Square Mile as the guest roaster, so the counter has spent more than a decade attached to roasters people follow rather than to whatever was cheapest.

A short stop with seats in the passage

The room serves office workers and people moving between Lime Street and Leadenhall Market, so the layout is built for flow: takeaway accessories along the wall, a direct counter, very little indoor seating. The corner position saves it. A covered passageway runs alongside, and the tables and benches out there give the café more room outside than in, which in the City is rarer than good espresso. Inside is stylish without being formal, with a rustic counter, pendant lighting, plants, artwork and brewing kit on display. Anyone staying gets a proper cup rather than paper, and drinks are carried out to the tables.

Order the flat white, then the blondie

Start with the flat white. It is the drink this counter is judged on, and both the milk texture and the latte art are handled carefully. The piccolo is the shorter version of the same idea and is worth taking when a single origin is on espresso; a Colombian Huila has run through it with toffee and chocolate sweetness. For a longer black coffee, take the batch brew or the filter, which has carried a fruit-forward Peruvian among others. Food supports the coffee rather than competing with it: cakes and pastries in the window, croissants and muffins in the morning, sandwiches and breakfast for anyone making a meal of the stop. The sweet thing to look for is the peanut butter blondie.