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Hawthorne Coffee Shop & Espresso Bar

Not only has The Hawthorne café/restaurant retained pride of place on the first floor of the new Fulton's furniture store, now relocated to the Balmoral Plaza development on Boucher Road, it has spawned a downstairs espresso bar as well, with splendid leather seats where you can have a restorative coffee and something to tempt the sweet tooth.

The shop's stairwell - of cathedral proportions, like the shop itself - incorporates a double escalator leading to the first floor where the Hawthorne now has floor to ceiling windows and a number of pleasant seating areas, some with elevated views over the Boucher Road and beyond to the Black Mountain.

If you're shopping or have business in the area (generous parking) this is a great place to know about as, thanks to Sylvia, there's a pride in real home cooking and the art of scone making is alive and well. There's nothing flashy about the food: expect lovely flavoursome dishes like home-made soup with wheaten bread, quiches - asparagus & salmon, vegetable - seafood pie and steak & mushroom hot-pot and several casseroles daily.

There's always a large selection of salads, and home-made desserts like banoffee and lemon meringue pie- and free refills of coffee.

An added attraction between 12 and 2 is to listen to the resident pianist play on the Steinway baby grand.

Seats 160 (private room, 60); children welcome (high chair, baby changing facilities); toilets wheelchair accessible. Open Mon Sat 9.15-5.15. A la carte. Espresso bar open to 8 pm Thu, for late night shoppers. Master Card, Visa, Switch.

Directions:

Off M1, take Stockman's Lane exit off roundabout, left into Boucher Road. (At Fultons Fine Furnishings Store).