The former El Patio restaurant at 171 Lavender Hill is being refitted, to open as a new cafe & restaurant called Pique – if all goes well should be up and running in early December. The Pique Café will be serving breakfast & lunch throughout the week, with brunch on the weekends. The plan is to open as an aperitif restaurant in the evenings later in the week, with sharing plates, house spritzes and wines.

Pique’s not new – it was launched back in 2017 by Sophie Richardson, and has operated from a backstreet location in Earlsfield (just around the corner from Earlsfield’s new branch of Marks & Spencer – which is set to echo the flagship one in Clapham Junction). Pique has, for the last six years, specialised in making high quality picnics, hand made to order and delivered directly to customers – with a huge range of finger foods, meat and fish options, sandwiches, salads, and desserts, as well as a sideline in hampers that are tailored to specific kinds of event (one of which is, of course, called the Pique Nique). They have run both a direct-to-customers trade, including an extensive range of event catering, and a corporate offer that has supplied everything from office gatherings looking for more than a tray of soggy sandwiches, to ever-hungry film crews keen for crack-of-dawn breakfasts and quality lunches.

Pique have long aimed to open a proper cafe, so the site at 171 Lavender Hill must have seemed the perfect opportunity It’s a large, elegant space (1200 square feet, with nearly 400 more downstairs for the facilities and back of house), with lots of natural light, that includes a generous front terrace and space for a proper kitchen. Maybe not surprisingly the premises has a long foodie history – having spent many many years as The Lavender, and also (in an unusual twist) having been the El Patio restaurant not once but twice – with the second incarnation having the singularly bad luck of opening the week before the lockdown in 2020. Works are now well underway to reorganise and refurbish the premises – and the blueprint below is a preview of what we can expect. The whole space is being reorganised to put the counter and an open kitchen area at the back, while removing the old bar to free up the whole of the front section as a generous and flexible area for the cafe, making the most of the generously sized windows of this big Victorian corner unit.

There will, of course, also be a complete refurbishment and upgrading of the old premises – and we have got a sneak preview of the mood board from early in the development of the new venture, shown below – expect the exterior to go from black to a shade of pale pink, and the general theme inside to be white with touches of red and candy stripes (matching well with Pique’s brand).

Pique, who are already sort of local, are keen to become a part of the community and a neighbourhood hub with plenty of sociable events & clubs – and are keen for ideas on what would be welcome – for example life drawing; new mum coffee mornings; supper clubs & singles nights, or fortnightly Sunday roast clubs. Dogs will also be very welcome. The team aim for the new cafe to be a place to come and work from home; a cosy spot to meet with friends in the winter, and a sociable after work spot in the summer that can make the most of the generous outdoor seating.

Pique feels like an ideal addition to the street – it sounds like a business set for success, and should be in good company – with a cluster of good cafes on this stretch of the street including Social Pantry (who also started out as a catering-focussed business, before branching out to an ever-busy actual cafe), Il Molino (specialising in coffee, salads and a range of quality cakes), and our long standing and ever popular Cafe Parisienne (for a good quality classic breakfast and lunch range). They’re one of a cluster of planned openings, which will also see Phresh Juice bar opening at 103a LavenderHill (close to the Battersea Business Centre – and next door to the Baguette Deli) in just a couple of days’ time.

Update (January) – Pique is open! Here’s the final result – it;s looking much better. There’s now plenty of pavement seating too, not that it is seeing much use in January. 

Pique, 171 Lavender Hill, Battersea SW11 5TE.  Thanks to our readers who tipped us off on the new opening, and to the team at Pique for sharing details of the plans. You may also want to see our recent roundup of comings and goings on the street, or our wider articles on retail in Lavender Hill.