Natural evolution
JESS BLACKSTONE & MAT APPLETON • Fink’s
WORK • Wednesday Routine
JESS BLACKSTONE & MAT APPLETON • co-founders • Fink’s
Neighbourhood you work in: Stoke Newington, Highbury & Finsbury Park
Neighbourhood you live in: Finsbury Park (Jess), Archway (Mat)
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Jess: Mat and I opened Fink’s in a derelict shop in 2014, and since then we’ve grown to five sites and opened an in-house bakery and our sister restaurant, Saltine (whose last service will be Sunday, 21 December after two beautiful years).
I live next door to our original Fink’s, so I start with a coffee there, then pop down to the kitchen to chat with the chefs. This morning I went to the bakery (just down the road) to try a new bun we’re developing. Chatting to the bakers who’ve been in since 4a makes me feel like a slacker. Then I walk through the park to Fink’s at Clissold House, our newest and biggest baby. Within moments, I’m trying a new dressing and tackling questions about pension schemes and tripped circuits.
After years of working behind the counter and in the kitchen, we now have an office on the top floor of Clissold House, a beautiful Georgian manor house. Our amazing, elegant room has huge shuttered windows looking out over the park – it’s all trees and sky. I can hear the wind, squawking parakeets and a few voices chatting – it’s bucolic.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Jess: Wednesday is our big meeting day, so everyone’s in. Chefs, bakers, head barista – it’s livelier than the rest of the week. Today I’m working on a new salad, and trying to get an errant signwriter to come back and fix a wayfinding sign pointing in the wrong direction. We’re already outgrowing our new in-house bakery, so most days there’s discussion between me and Mat about its evolution.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Jess: This weekend, I’m going to Legado because Marina O’Loughlin said to, and I do everything she says.
Mat: I celebrated a family birthday at The Newt in Somerset. They do a great set lunch for £50, and you can spend hours walking around the grounds and gardens. In London, I’m itching to get to The French House again. I crave a boozy lunch there once the nights draw in.
How about a little leisure or culture?
Jess: I’m hoping to get to the Studio Nicholson sample sale, does that count as a sporting event? I loved Jenny Saville at the National Portrait Gallery and I’m looking forward to Catherine Opie’s show there too.
Any weekend getaways?
Mat: I grew up in Somerset, so I go back as often as I can. It’s become more bougie since I moved to London, and places like Bruton and Frome have a DFL (Down From London) vibe. There’s still plenty of old Somerset charm off the beaten track if you’re willing to go a bit further from Castle Cary station, though. Pubs like The Lord Poulett are worth the effort.
Jess: It’s embarrassing as a lifelong Londoner, but I’ve only really discovered Paris in the last few years. Before opening the bakery, I made a patisserie-based walking tour and took the team on a recce, which was a great way to see Paris. I was there more recently with my girlfriend for a weekend too. It was the Fête de la Musique, where people play music outside, which is the most French thing I can imagine. Groups of Parisians were literally singing aux Champs-Élysées in the street, as if we were in a really naff film.
It’s worth queueing for the famous Chez Alain Miam Miam sandwich, though probably more for the fun of it than the actual sandwich. For a classic, casual bistro with really good cooking, go to Chez Nenesse. Café Le Deux Gares, right by the stations (a last pitstop before you head home) has an excellent set lunch menu, and not an English voice to be heard. My favourite bar is Le Sully – cheap, full of old men who look like they’re discussing Sartre (although they could be talking about their verrucas, my French isn’t good), and the right blend of welcoming and anonymous. We once ended the night with the Fink’s team at a bar covered in pictures of the Pope, but I couldn’t tell you where it was...
What was your last great holiday?
Jess: Lanzarote. I couldn’t believe how wild and beautiful most of the island is, given its reputation. It’s volcanic so the whole place looks like Mars, and it’s peppered with these slightly Bond-villainy clifftop viewpoints where you can sip a cocktail observing the wild, volcanic landscape. For elegant luxury, stay at Hotel César, a whitewashed fisherman’s cottage in the tiny village of Playa Quemada, right on the edge of the water with huge volcanic hills behind. There’s also La Casa de los Naranjos in a slightly dusty but very chic colonial house in a quiet town in the north. Buena Vista Suites are beautiful contemporary houses set in the middle of a volcanic vineyard. Every morning, you’re greeted in your suite by two friendly labradors and an incredible breakfast on handmade ceramics.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
Jess: I recently smashed a goose lamp that my dad had bought in the ‘70s. My family was relieved to be rid of it but I scoured the internet for a replacement and am once again the proud owner of an original 1970s Gladys the Goose.
What store or service do you always recommend?
Jess: Manufactum, a department store of the best of everything. Not the fanciest or the coolest – just the best. Best lamp, best sock, best potato peeler, best bed, best soap. The physical store in Berlin is amazing, but you can get it all online.
Where are you donating your time or money?
Jess: I support St Mungo’s homelessness charity, and a family in Gaza directly through a journalist friend.
Mat: At Fink’s, we regularly raise money for the Hackney Food Bank.