"The coolest thing about Mario’s is that it has been immortalised in a pop song. But if the caff itself was a band, it would only have one member: Mario Saggese, on drums, guitar, bass, cookery, service, coffee-making, management, front of house and plenty more besides, including shooting the breeze with his devoted regulars. It may be the artiest caff in London, thanks to its creative crowd, all the photos on the walls and Mario himself, who has the old-school, north London jazz guy demeanour of somebody like Gilles Peterson. Mario is an excellent cook too, rushing into the back to knock together whatever’s been ordered, like a dad rustling up dinner for his kids. Remarkably, he manages to keep conversations going at the same time, literally shouting to customers from the kitchen while he fries an escalope or tosses pasta with sauce. Interestingly, Mario’s is actually a caff within a caff, in that it used to be Tony’s Restaurant, which Mario’s grandad opened in 1958. After a fallow period, Mario’s dad reopened the place in the 1980s, before suffering a heart attack and handing it over to his son, who made it his own." - Isaac Rangaswami
