Tapped and Packed Screening

The owner of chic new café Tapped and Packed in Fitzrovia said that he wanted to bring café culture to London’s fore – to create the sort of environment where people could come, sit, while away a few peaceful hours in comfort, with coffee, watching the world go by. And seeing as he’d started his mission with free cocktails and a secret screening of an art house thriller, we were only too happy to oblige.

Hardened fan of great coffee that I am (black please, no sugar) I was happily impressed by the olde worlde grinders and the earthy smell of Brazil’s finest wafting through the air. Cool girls and media types were strewn about the place, either sitting at the light wooden tables and benches, or standing to admire the sparse décor and the overarching feel of effortlessness that the place inspired. We nursed our delicious espresso martinis in teeny weeny cups and tried to ignore the woman-and-video-camera hovering next to our seats.

The film on show was The Limits of Control by Jim Jarmusch and it had drawn a mish-mash crowd of the director’s most ardent fans, genuine film buffs and people who will go anywhere there’s free booze on offer. I occupy a space somewhere left of the latter, so it was with a completely open mind and a drink in hand that I sat down to watch.

In a nutshell, the film centres around a lone assassin on a job in Spain. It has an impressive cast, including Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and Gael Garcia Bernal, and is beautifully shot, expertly taking in the many landscapes of its host country.

According to snippets overheard after the screening from people who know what they’re talking about, this had not been Jarmusch’s best effort. Indeed while visually it was arresting, the film’s dialogue had at times seemed inaccessible. I’d originally put this down to general ignorance on my part combined with a buzzy caffeine high and a little too much vodka, but it seems I may be more movie-literate than I had originally thought.

Of the night itself nobody had a bad word to say. The staff were charming and the location ideal. There were little pockets of intelligent conversation going on in every corner and everybody was made to feel perfectly at home. Nobody fell over, nothing got broken – the whole affair was civilised in the extreme. I can’t recommend Tapped and Packed highly enough for a relaxing afternoon. I’ll definitely be returning to sample their expertly made coffee and what looks like a delicious selection of food stuffs and chocolates. If this is café culture then sign me up, I’m sold.

Tapped and Packed
26 Rathbone Place
Fitzrovia
W1T1JD