Welcome to Terry’s Caf?. Amid the red and white checked table cloths and blue and white striped aprons of the hosts, the music floats by, it’s somnambulant, it fits the mood perfectly. The tunes played at Terry’s are as popular as their famous tea, homemade fish finger sandwiches and legendary breakfasts. Many customers have enquired about the playlist as they tuck into their hearty scran and, well, it had to be done, so here it is. Time For Terry’s will transport you back to the 1930s and 1940s – the soundtrack to the hustle and bustle and comings and goings at this legendary scoff-spot. But, who is the enigmatic Terry? Terry was a chef in the army, his mum was a pastry cook, an old school grafter. Terry himself worked at Smithfield Meat Market from the age of 17 and in 1982 he opened Terry’s Caf?. Sadly Terry passed away in 2010. Austin, his son, a chip off the old block, had worked alongside him full-time since 1995 and naturally took over. Down at 158 Great Suffolk Street, it still is a family affair – from the distinctive selection of Terry-approved tea to the eat-in or takeaway food, from hot salt beef to the perfect fry up and roast of the day. And that’s why the soundtrack there is tailor made too, and almost engraved into the picture laden walls as Time For Terry’s tunes have played alongside others endlessly since the doors opened nearly 4 decades ago; it’s relaxing, comforting, familiar, like a good old cup of tea. There’s revered English trumpeter Nat Gonella’s Black Coffee, the blues singer turned movie star Trixie Smith’s Jack, I’m Mellow and Cab Calloway’s imitable Minnie The Moocher. As the tea continues to steep, the stupor of early morning revelry escalates into a continuous piece of cerebral time travel; here, we can easily imagine the wonderfully named combo Julia And Her Boyfriends arriving for a brew after a stint at the local dancehall. Their King Size Papa rolls out of the speaker and they mime their way through breakfast, joined by the close harmonies of The Ink Spots at an adjoining table All of this music, and the setting, it’s some kind of link to a bygone age where breakfast was for reviving champions, lunch was even better and afternoon tea a must as Henry James famously said: “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” Who are we to argue? More tea, vicar?
