That's one espresso machine out of commission for a while
The valve regulating the steamer has sheared off completely.
It seems odd that it should break like this, looking at the bit that came off, there looks like marks suspiciously like tool marks. Perhaps I ought to mention that the other week a rival coffee chain asked if they could pay me to shut down and go away. When I said over my dead body, there was some mutterings about being careful what I wished for. I thought it was related to the recent problems concerning Boris Bar and the banking problems.
I will just have to bring the new one on stream a little earlier, and perhaps we could have some CCTV survelance over here.
Looks like we may have coffee wars instead of Bar Wars