An Antipodean-style speciality coffee spot by day and a wine, cocktail and Australian-beer bar by night, a breath of fresh air on Fulham Palace Road
Antipode holds six hundred and ninety-four reviews and a 4.2 – a solid score on a good sample – and it is a genuine breath of fresh air on Fulham Palace Road: an Antipodean-style speciality coffee spot by day that transforms into a wine, cocktail and Australian-beer bar by night, part of a small wave of interesting venues brightening the Hammersmith high street.
The Antipodean touch
The name says it all: “Antipode” nods to the Antipodes – Australia and New Zealand, quite literally on the opposite side of the globe – and to the celebrated Antipodean coffee culture that has transformed cafe standards across London and the world. Australians and New Zealanders brought with them a genuine obsession with quality coffee – the properly-pulled espresso, the velvety flat white, the serious speciality-coffee standards – and Antipode brings exactly this to Hammersmith. Serving Square Mile coffee (one of London’s great speciality roasters), it offers office workers and locals a genuine alternative to the bland chain cafes – real, properly-made, quality coffee in a relaxed Antipodean-style setting. There is genuine quality and character in it – the serious speciality coffee, the relaxed Antipodean vibe, the welcome antidote to the chains.
Cafe by day, bar by night
Antipode’s lovely dual character is part of its appeal – the venue that serves you well from morning to night. By day it is a speciality coffee spot and cafe, serving Square Mile coffee alongside light sandwiches and salads with a creative twist (the raw “massaged” kale salad, for instance) – the relaxed, quality, Antipodean-style cafe. And by night it transforms into a bar – offering wine, cocktails and, fittingly, Australian beer, in a relaxed and characterful setting. It is a genuinely appealing format – the quality coffee and light bites of the day giving way to the wine, cocktails and Aussie beer of the evening, all in one relaxed, characterful, Antipodean-inspired venue. There is real appeal in it – the all-day format, the quality throughout, the relaxed and characterful welcome.
Brightening the high street
Antipode has a genuine significance for its stretch of Hammersmith, too – for it has been something of a pioneer, planting a seed of change on a Fulham Palace Road otherwise dominated by the looming Hammersmith flyover. As one guide put it, Antipode planted a seed of change, with other interesting restaurants and venues popping up in its wake – helping to transform the street into something more vibrant and charismatic, the very opposite of the grey flyover overhead. There is something genuinely admirable in that – the independent, characterful, quality venue that helps to brighten and revive its neighbourhood, drawing others in its wake. Its solid score across a good sample reflects a genuinely good, characterful, well-liked spot – the quality coffee, the relaxed cafe-bar, the welcome breath of fresh air on the high street.
Between its serious Square Mile coffee, its relaxed Antipodean character, its cafe-by-day-bar-by-night format, and its pioneering role in brightening its stretch of Fulham Palace Road, Antipode is a genuinely good and characterful Hammersmith spot. Its solid score across a good sample marks it as a genuinely good and well-liked venue. The Prat’s desk enjoys a proper flat white by day, returns for a wine and an Australian beer by night, and raises an appreciative glass to Antipode.
The bar
A solid, well-liked cafe-bar doing a good 4.2 across a good sample – Antipode, an Antipodean-style speciality coffee spot by day and a wine, cocktail and Australian-beer bar by night.
Verdict
Solid, well-liked, and genuinely fresh – Antipode, an Australian-style coffee-and-cocktail spot brightening Fulham Palace Road.
Go to Antipode for a proper Square Mile flat white by day and wine, cocktails and Australian beer by night – a characterful breath of fresh air on Hammersmith’s Fulham Palace Road.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
