Business of the week: Sunday, the cafe people queue for in Hemingford Road

In a new weekly feature, we profile a fascinating company doing business here in Islington. This week, we visit Sunday in Barnsbury, a cafe so popular that people happily spend hours of their weekend queueing to get in.

Barnsbury’s Sunday cafe is defined as much by the people standing outside as by those eating inside.

Take a late morning/early afternoon stroll through Hemingford Road on a Saturday or Sunday and you are guaranteed to see a huge queue of people waiting to get in.

In June 2013, Sunday took over the premises formerly occupied by the Fig restaurant. And it didn’t take long for the brunch hype to set in.

Co-owner Terrence Williamson says: “The queues started within the first year. At first, people were at the door at 9am and we joked they would soon be queueing around the corner.”

The food is as “Islington” as one would expect (expect plenty of buttermilk pancakes and avocado).

It means the cafe – and queue – is packed with well-off 20-something professionals at the weekend, while it has a loyal crowd of regulars during the week.

And Terrence says he’s unsurprised at Sunday’s success. “It’s the product we are selling,” he says. “We only use the best of what’s out there. We are reasonably priced and quite generous with our portions. And we are creative with our menu.”