Tag Archives: Park College

The Coffee Shop @ Park College

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Like most people, when we’re set free from our subterranean publishing prison at lunchtime we’re often at a loss for what to do. With the weather getting worse its becoming impractical to sit in Kennington Park, even if the eye candy running past is alluring. So we’re headed around the corner to revisit an old friend.

Park College is an establishment that helps young people with additional needs (primarily autism) enter the world of work. On a previous visit we saw young people gardening, repairing bikes, and working in a design space. The Coffee Shop is for folks interested in the hospitality/catering trade, and the students cook and serve all the food with the assistance of dedicated staff. This includes sandwiches, muffins, cakes, paninis and quiches. And they’re mightily proud of their hot beverages and happy to help with your selection. 

With our regular lunch partner Karen from Finance still under the effects of Manjourno, her sidekick Pippa decided to plump for the special of the day, which was gnocchi with courgettes. This turned out to be a good sized serving of plain potato gnocchi with a light cream sauce flavoured which was was served with two salads alongside on the plate. Pippa found the iceberg lettuce and avocado to be a bit bland but the shredded carrot with tahini was much more interesting. After calling her an ‘ingrate’ under our breath, we reminded Pippa that its nigh impossible for find a healthy lunch for £7 in Greater Kennington.

Your much more grateful scribe had the mozzarela and sun dried tomato sandwich. Served between two salty slices of homemade focaccia bread. The tomatoes were oily and the mozzarela plentiful. It came with a quite sinister looking green smear on the side, which turned out to be lovely avocado. And just £5! There are various hot drinks available, again keenly priced, and a selection of soft drinks that focuses on juices or fizzy drinks with a natural bent – including a tasty can of sparkling apple with ginger.

The Park cafe also has an adorable giftshop selling cards, paintings, coffee mugs, and handbags made from crisp bags. Because after all, in the parallel universe in which Tesco resides, Christmas is apparently just around the corner.

Coffee Shop at Park College

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Congratulations! If you’re reading this then you’ve probably survived until 17 May. But let’s be honest here, Britain has actually enjoyed ‘being British’ over the past few months. You know you have a secret survivalist thrill when it comes to eating a salad nicoise in 10 degree weather with horizontal rain knocking over your glass of Pinot, or sitting on a bench in Kennington Park drinking your Espresso while getting concussed by tiny hailstones. But all good things must come to an end.

While we all yearn to return to our favourite dining establishments if we can get organised enough to book, we’ve found a lovely café/coffee shop where you don’t have to book and you can also make a difference. The Park College is a local educational institution dedicated to helping young people with autism obtain hands on skills that might turn into paid employment. On our trip we saw students gardening, repairing bikes, and working in a design space. However, the purpose of our visit was to visit the coffee shop, which is open Tuesday to Friday from 9:30am to 3pm. 

The coffee shop at Park College offers breakfast fare including croissants, toasties, cakes and vegan sausage. For lunch, fare included jacket potato, falafel/hummus wrap, and chili jam and goat’s cheese roll among others. Your scribe opted for a mozzarella and tomato sandwich with black olive pesto, served on ciabatta. The students were making the sandwiches with the close guidance of mentors. The work in the café was obviously geared to the interests of individual students, with some in the open kitchen and others on the serving and collecting money side of things. 

As you can see, on our visit inside eating just wasn’t gonna happen,  so we ate our very generously proportioned ciabatta in their outside area. And while we’ve all enjoyed the character building elements of eating in a gale, it will be nice to eat inside again, and especially with the knowledge that you are helping to build careers for vulnerable people.  

The Park College can be found in Kennington Park Place.