Argentinian bakery Madre opens residency at Fabrica X coffee shop in King’s Cross

Madre, a small-batch Argentinian bakery run by friends Lelu and Vicky, has opened a residency at the coffee shop inside Fabrica X in King’s Cross, London, Tuesday to Thursday. It brings baked goods based on the baking traditions the pair grew up with in Argentina to the site. 

Fabrica X is the gallery and concept store of The Mills Fabrica. The Hong Kong-founded organisation supports start-ups working on sustainability in food, agriculture and textiles, and it has had a London base in King’s Cross since 2021. During the upcoming weeks, Madre’s baking is served alongside the coffee shop’s own coffee.

Madre bakes everything from scratch in small batches using organic, seasonal ingredients, with the range of baked goodes drawing on staples of Argentinian bakeries. These include medialunas, the crescent-shaped bakes eaten across the country at breakfast and with afternoon coffee, soft enough to fold. The bakery also makes alfajores, sandwich biscuits traditionally filled with dulce de leche and often rolled in coconut or coated in chocolate.

The bakery also refers to facturas, the umbrella term in Argentina for sweet pastries. Their names reflect a well-known quirk of Argentinian baking culture: many facturas carry irreverent names, which are commonly attributed to anarchist bakers’ unions in late 19th-century Buenos Aires, who are said to have used them to mock the church, the police and the military.

Sharing is central to how the founders present the project. Madre states that its baking is meant to be shared, as back home a single pastry was never the point: in Argentina, facturas are typically bought by the dozen and eaten together, often alongside mate or coffee.

The residency adds a new breakfast and mid-morning option to the area around King’s Cross and York Way. 

Food Desk

For further information, visit The Mills Fabrica’s website here and Madre’s website here.