Heritage is at the heart of Flour & Thorn, Stockwell’s new neighbourhood bakery, coffee shop and florist.
Barista, florist and former NHS worker Obi Ezenwoye inherited the site three years ago; it had been in their family for more than 30 years. “It’s very rare for someone like myself, from an immigrant background, to be able to have space in this city and I wanted to share that with other people,” Ezenwoye tells Broadsheet.
After deciding to turn the space into a cafe, Ezenwoye started searching for a head baker. “Fate” led them to Hadia Tariq Mutter – the sister of a friend – who was running a patisserie from her home. It was an ideal match. “We have both felt a bit pushed aside or underestimated in various points of our careers,” Mutter says. “[Flour Thorn] is us saying that was your loss.”
Mutter – who trained at the prestigious Ecole Ducasse culinary school in France – bakes pastries inspired by heritage and memory. The best example of this is her Three Grandmothers’ Babka. The first grandmother refers to the babka itself – in Ukrainian slang, babka is a word for grandmother – while the other two “grandmothers” are represented in the sweet bread’s ingredients: Abuelita, a Mexican hot chocolate she first tried on her honeymoon (its name translates from Spanish to grandmother), and caraway, her Pakistani grandmother’s favourite biscuit flavour. She also makes her family’s chai recipe in-house, using fresh ginger and spices brought over from Pakistan.
On the counter visitors will also find mini French apple tarts, merguez sausage rolls, cheese straws (using cheese from Neal’s Yard Dairy, where Mutter once worked as a cheesemonger) and lemon drizzle blueberry buns. Plus, fresh sourdough and rocky road. The latter combines house-made Maltesers, marshmallows and Himalayan salted caramel, and has been popular with local school children. Everything is made in small batches by hand, with ethically sourced ingredients.
Flour & Thorn serves Frequency Coffee – the first non-Frequency cafe to do so. There’s also a 13-hour cold brew made with Climpson & Sons beans, alongside matcha and tea. Don’t miss Ezenwoye’s creative specials, such as lavender matcha with ube cold foam made with lavender picked by Mutter’s husband.
Ezenwoye also looks after the bright bouquets, either hand-selected from New Covent Garden Market or sourced from Holland, and curates them with a new theme or design every week – British hydrangeas were a recent hit.
Bringing Flour & Thorn to life has been a labour of love, particularly as it was renovated and financed independently. The renovation itself was full of challenges, such as the roof collapsing midway and the fridge being delivered without gas two days before opening, forcing Mutter to work a 38-hour baking shift. But it all came together: the space is light-filled, with vintage French counters and a repurposed haberdashery counter; wood and chrome features; and benches for perching outside the bright white exterior.
“We’re Black, queer, Muslim, low income, everything, and we’ve managed to produce this on very little just off our own backs,” Mutter says.
With all their energy and money being poured into Flour & Thorn, there were no resources left for advertising. So the pair was shocked at the number of people who visited in week one – they even sold out of pastries. “It’s a testament to how incredible Stockwell and its community spirit is,” Ezenwoye says.
Flour & Thorn
40 Thorne Road, SW8 2BZ
Hours:
Thu & Fri 8am–6pm
Sat 9am–6pm
