Fred and Doug's: The Epping café with a bold personality where the staff know everyone's orders

When my friend asked me to catch up at an independent café she’d seen that “looked nice” one weekend, I did not expect to have an experience that would make me immediately want to return, but I went to this café twice in the same week, and was not disappointed either time.

From the outside, Fred & Doug’s on Epping High Street appears as very ‘understated chic’. Kim Kardashian would love it. Think muted grey tones on their overhang, a classic bold rectangular border with capital lettering on their sign, and a few small tables outside for when the sun decides to show. On closer inspection, this small café had a massive personality and a reputation to match. The first day that I happened upon it, the rain was not holding back, and still, the queue went out of the door and down the street. People were even willing to wait in the rain with their children for Fred and Doug’s mouth-watering menu.

On my first visit, I had not quite realised that the wait staff knew a lot of the customers very well because the crowd was just alive. It became apparent on my second trip when I heard endless conversations with the team asking people if they’d been playing golf yet, or if they were feeling better after their bout of hay fever, that this is a community where the staff genuinely care about their customers. They clearly have their regulars, some having been loyal since the venue opened seven-odd years ago. The atmosphere was one of kindness and there was a lightness, where staff were showing each other how to make specific coffee orders.

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Sat at my table, I decided to try something I hadn’t before. A non-tea-non-coffee drinker, I was suddenly tempted to try an extra milky caramel latte (£4.30). I'm not sure how it would go at first- coffee is always best served in a martini from my experience- I took a leap. Now, I did say that I’ve been to Fred and Doug’s twice in one week. I have had three caramel lattes. I’m not sure if it’s the caffeine whiplashing me into some kind of latte addiction, but I cannot stop thinking about this coffee. After very little deliberation, I think I might have a bit of a U-turn, and dip my toe if I see another caramel latte on the menu elsewhere. Served in a wonderfully large glass, with caramel and milk marbling on top to make a heart shape, this was a coffee made with love.

If going from a tee-total caffeinephobe to three-in-a-week doesn’t strike you as a compelling enough reason to check this place out, let me tell you about the food. There are two groups of brunchers, I’d argue, the ones who go for the whole spectrum of as much food as you can possibly fit on one crowded plate, and the ones who order an avocado on toast, which sits very stylishly atop some neatly placed cress or some other leaf. I am certainly the former.

Deciding to try it all out, I went for Fred’s veggie brekkie (£14) and added a very much non-veggie sausage instead of a tomato. The full plate included eggs “as you like”, halloumi with just the right amount of searing, chilli-seasoned zingy avocado, a mushroom the size of your face, beans, and sourdough toast. It might have taken me a full forty minutes to beat it, but I did successfully win an argument with myself that my eyes were not too big for my belly. With help from the freshly squeezed orange juice (£4), which I could see being squeezed in front of me, I was undefeated.

With the selection of very pretty cakes and pastries perched by the till, calling out to be eaten, I have absolutely no reason not to go back next week, and maybe have another coffee.

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