Helma Café + Wine

A labour of love by a pair of ex-pats who met while working in hospitality, Helma is a homelike café and wine shop that fits neatly into De Beauvoir's mindful day-to-day.

At Helma, Tess and Kosta put their wealth of experience, accumulated at venues such as the Zetter Restaurant, St. John, Quality Chop House, and Vinoteca, to full use at their family-run venture just off Kingsland Road. Their café is snug and cosy, equal parts sincere Georgian supra feast and Swedish fika coffee break in a reflection of its founders' respective lineages. The walls are lined with bottle after bottle of natural wines you can also purchase to take home, and the best seat in the house is a toss-up between the elevated communal table offering a peek behind the bar, or the outside tables for soaking up the sun on a quiet side street whilst sipping speciality coffee.

Serving breakfast, brunch, and lunch, the kitchen at Helma is fully vegetarian, with ample options for vegans as well. The menu changes regularly, but always keeps seasonality in mind. Everything is made in-house, from the various preserves to the house-fermented kombucha, further amplifying the feeling you've been invited into someone's home. There are all-day breakfast dishes like sage fried eggs with mustard parsnip, labneh, cavolo nero, pickled radicchio, and almonds to choose from, alongside daily sandwiches, soups, wraps, and more. All of the food is available for takeaway, and Helma offers catering, celebration cakes, and venue hire as well.