The first time I walk into Fink’s bakery, perched atop Clissold Park, it’s still summer and I’m concerned with petty things like what iced drink will keep me hydrated through the heatwave. Though London has seen a sunny, fortunate September pass by, the season has finally turned, and with it things get serious. Goodbye to the vibrant reds of strawberries and soft pinks of peaches; hello to apples, plums, berries, and pears in all their deep, autumnal hues.
For lovers of a decent baked good, London is one of the best cities to live in – you are truly spoiled for choice. So, in an effort to offer guidance and narrow a very long list of destinations, COLD magazine is highlighting three queer-owned bakeries across the capital, all of which have seen many a season turn through the years.
At Fink’s, the passage of time has seen the opening of five locations across north London, the metamorphosis from deli to restaurant to bakery, and through it all the enterprising connection between co-founders Mat Appleton and Jess Blackstone keeping the lights on. Hopping across the river to south London, the seasons at Toad bakery have also seen expansion, cult-like status for their baked goods, and at its heart co-founders Rebecca Spaven and Oliver Costello’s dedication to their team. Finally, at A Portuguese Love Affair in east London, the years for co-founders Dina Martins and Olga Cruchinho have brought the continuous reinvention of their business, including a basement event space dedicated to supporting queer voices and community.
Ahead of the incoming chill, COLD sat down with all three duos to chat about the stories behind the bakeries and their recommendations for the best items on the menu.
FINK’S BAKERY
Today, the view from Fink’s is just as imposing as it was on the summer day of our interview, but tinged with a lot more romance: Darkened leaves pile on the grass, and mist curls through the park. Appleton and Blackstone revamped this Grade II listed building last year, opening its bright new halls to great success. During our interview, I feel like I’m somewhere between a Jane Austen novel and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
It’s a far cry from their beginnings, 12 years ago, when Blackstone ran a “derelict old shop”, as she puts it, with Appleton’s now husband. She had hopes of turning it into something else, and an arranged dinner between herself and Appleton sparked the entrepreneurial flame “almost immediately”. For its first 10 years of life, Fink’s was more of a deli, but organic change was woven into its DNA: “We were incredibly responsive to what people wanted us to be,” Blackstone explains, “what was working well, and also what we found exciting”.
A big turning point came with their current “head baker superstar extraordinaire”, Adriann Ramirez, stepping up to fill the role in an early vacancy. “We hit the ground running”, Appleton tells me, “and that was the beginning of us being a bakery”. Now it seems impossible to imagine that baking might never have been on the books – “why wouldn’t you want the ability to be able to play around with that kind of medium?”
Beyond the inevitability of baking, talking to Appleton and Blackstone, it seems their whole empire was a natural extension of their personalities. “I love new projects”, Blackstone says, smiling. “I’m a real sort of magpie, so I like when something new and difficult is happening. When it’s all working smoothly, I’m bored”. Appleton agrees: “It excited us both. For me, I love having this evolution of one established sweet team now collaborating with everyone else – blurring the edges”. With five locations (six, counting the bakery), trust in the team is essential, and a large part of their staff are connected through friendship, with a majority being queer. “But we have just hired two cisgender heterosexuals”, Blackstone adds, “so we are an equal opportunities employer”.
As for their autumnal menu, expect berries and burnt caramel and dark chocolate; for a proper festive taste, why not head to their celebratory autumn market on Saturday the 17th? You’ll preside over Clissold Park, pumpkin pastry in hand.
TOAD BAKERY
It’s been a big summer for Toad’s co-founders, Spaven and Costello, with July seeing the grand opening of their second London location in Deptford Market. They’ve kept things south of the river, expanding from their first location in Camberwell, a small venue with big dreams that first opened in 2022. “Our pastry arm had been producing everything in the basement with no daylight and lifting heavy trays up corner stairs”, Costello tells me. It “was something we were happy to leave behind”.
That bakery off Peckham Road saw lines form every day, with Londoners coming from far and wide across the city to try their iconic goods, from seasonal pastries to golden loaves of bread and, unmissably, their savoury Everything Bagel Croissant. The business was born from an instant connection between Spaven and Costello, who were introduced by a mutual friend on the simple basis that they were both bakers and loved the band Prefab Sprout. “Within 5 minutes of meeting”, Costello says, “we decided to try and start something”. The Camberwell outpost remains operational, but “in Deptford, we’re all together on one floor and everything we’ve learnt since we started Toad has helped us design a perfect baking space”, Costello tells me. “It feels amazing to be giving the team what they deserve and to provide a comfortable space to bake”.
Toad’s new space feels like it’s all about honouring the work of its team. Walk into the light-filled, aromatic room and, if you can muster a look beyond the baked goods, you’ll see busybodies at work, dough balls and silver trays in hand. This ethos extends beyond the kitchen, too, with Costello and Spaven seeking out queer producers and suppliers to work with. As Costello tells me, “Managing a hospitality business with zero-tolerance for the shit we and other queer and marginalised people have to put up with is actually easier than we thought”. Some restaurants, he adds, “have no excuse”.
With seasonality being so important to their creative process, settling into autumn only promises good things. Taking a peek at Toad’s menu, I know what I’ll be having next time I’m there (Maple Cinnamon Swirl with Cream Cheese Icing), but I still ask Costello for his recommendation. “We’ve quietly updated our croissant dough recently”, he says, “it’s even more delicious now, so I’d say a plain croissant which is incredibly boring”. I guess, if I must, I’ll have that too.
A PORTUGUESE LOVE AFFAIR
Tucked onto a corner of prime East London real estate – right off Columbia Road, on the path to London Fields – footfall is not an issue for A Portuguese Love Affair. Frequentists of the area will easily recognise its white facade and the inviting, golden-crusted pastel de natas that sit by its window in little mounds. If they have ever wandered in, they’ll also recognise the bright eyes and big smiles of owners Dina Martins and Olga Cruchinho, who opened the café-deli together 13 years ago. “Portuguese Love Affair was and is a love letter to our country”, Cruchinho tells me over an espresso on a quiet midweek afternoon. “Not that we’re nationalists. No… But there’s always things you love from where you come from”.
When the pair first moved to London, the plan was to earn money and move back to Portugal to open a business there. But life, and London, happened, so the two decided to stay. In its early days, A Portuguese Love Affair looked a little different, selling only Portuguese goods such as ceramics and wine. Two years later, it evolved into a café almost organically, “because for us, Portugal is also about food”.
As we chat, Martins is busy readying the shop for an upcoming event, one of many in its constantly evolving social calendar. Some of the tables are occupied by regulars, who I assume to be young locals. The longer the interview goes on, the more people come in and out, and I marvel at the warm greetings and hugs extended all around, at how well everyone seems to know each other. In the 13 years since it opened, A Portuguese Love Affair’s most successful project has been building a community.
“I think the world is only beautiful if we all fit, and if we all accept each other for our differences”, Cruchinho tells me when I ask her about their basement event venue. It’s the latest of their organic expansions, opened two years ago as LAB, the Love Affair Basement, for queer events including cabaret, burlesque, poetry readings, live music, workshops, and more. “It’s just a fun place where you can actually express yourself and be very comfortable, or at least that’s what we aim for. It’s queer-oriented, but everyone is welcome”, Cruchinho says.
You can peek at LAB’s upcoming events on their instagram, but it’s harder to keep track of how the menu might change upstairs. Everything is made to order by either Cruchinho or Martins, leaving room for intuitive menu options. Still, you can always count on their award-winning pastéis, even if they’re not exactly Cruchinho’s favourites. “It’s actually a cake that I make”, she tells me, smiling. “A ginger cake with wine-poached pear. It has the spiciness of the ginger, and then there’s the pear that has been cooked in wine, red wine. It’s beautiful visually and, I don’t know, it warms”.
