Best 'cybercafe' in London: a grocery store?

LONDON, UK -- Finding a place to connect to the Internet and work in London is easy. There are Internet cafes everywhere. The Starbucks have Wi-Fi. Fast connections abound. However, the best "cybercafé" in the city turns out to be a grocery store!

Like London itself, the cybercafé scene is characterized by variety, high quality and high prices (especially for a American suffering from the currently unfavorable exchange rate). But one centrally located grocery store might be the ultimate place for travelers to connect and work: The brand-new Whole Foods Market on Kensington High Street.

Whole Foods, which is a grocery store chain headquartered in Austin that caters to health and gourmet oriented yuppies, has major plans for expansion into Europe. Breaking into that market with high-quality foods is a tall order. Cities like London, Paris and Berlin already have plenty of high-quality food options, and don't really need help from Texas.

So to impress the Europeans, Whole Foods built the Mother of All Markets in London. This three-story behemoth has everything -- including a cybercafé.

On the third floor, there's an open area with comfortable tables (total seating is about 25), easily accessible power outlets and a totally free, super-fast, unlimited-use Wi-Fi network.

Whole Foods is happy to have you come in and use the network for as long as you like -- they don't even care if you buy anything. You will buy something, though, because the store has a pizza station (the pies are baked in a brick oven right there), a gelato joint, a sushi bar, a wine-and-cheese bar, a Starbucks-like coffee place, a juice-and-smoothies bar, plus an unequaled grocery store offering every kind of delicious food imaginable.

The icing on the cake (oh, yeah, there's a pastry shop, too) is that right next door is a PC World. No, not a magazine -- PC World is a UK-based electronics superstore, kind of like a BestBuy.

So if you ever find yourself here in London and need a pleasant place to connect, work and eat, go to Whole Foods Market. This is hard-core Wi-Fi heaven.