Nottingham’s speciality coffee scene is taking off, with options ranging all the way from 200 Degrees Coffee Shop to Pelham Street’s Wired Café Bar. Slipping effortlessly into the gap between great coffee and comfort food, is The Pudding Pantry, which opened in April 2014 on Trinity Square.

Long and thin, The Pudding Pantry offers a full table service. You have the choice of sitting inside, where the dedicated seating area is separated from the counter by a small flight of stairs, or outside, in a large, fenced-off area on the pedestrianised street.

If I said that you don’t come to The Pudding Pantry for the coffee, that’s not knocking the coffee, which is from Kiwi imports, Ozone. Rather, it’s just that there’s so much else on offer that it would be silly just to come here for the coffee! As the name suggests, The Pudding Pantry is strong on sweet things, with a particularly good line of breakfasts and brunches, including one of my favourites, American-style pancakes. In that respect, it reminds me of the likes of The Bristolian and Glutton & Glee.

Currently, it’s espresso-only, but there’s a desire to add pour-over to the menu, so watch this space!

You can read more of my thoughts after the gallery.

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Although The Pudding Pantry’s address is Trinity Square, it’s not on the square proper, instead occupying a spot on the northern side of a continuation of Burton Street, which runs down to join Milton Street. Occupying what is in effect two distinct spaces (three if you count the external seating area), The Pudding Pantry’s long and thin. There are doors at either end, one for each space, the two being linked by a small flight of steps which allows for the sloping street.

Coming from Trinity Square/Burton Street, the doors open into the upper of the two spaces. Long and high-ceilinged, it’s taller than it is wide, which is saying something, given how wide it is! The front is all windows, which run almost floor-to-ceiling, making it a wonderfully, bright, airy space, helped by the white décor, punctuated with splashes of blue.

The bulk of the interior seating’s here: six two-person tables line a padded bench against the back wall, while pairs of two-person tables line the windows. At the far end, by the steps down, a comfy-looking sofa and coffee table sit at right-angles to the window. There’s more seating downstairs by the counter, with a three-person bar sitting against the back wall, while another occupies the window to the left of the door. Alternatively, there’s the generous, fenced-off seating area which occupies a chunk of the pavement on the pedestrian street. With numerous two-person tables, some of these can be combined for larger groups if required.

The counter occupies the downstairs (right-hand) space. Shorter (although that might just be because it also contains the kitchen, which is behind the counter to the right) than upstairs, it also has a much lower ceiling, so feels very cramped in comparison. Coming from Milton Street, this is where you enter, allowing you to eye up the cakes or order drinks to go. If you really don’t want to go inside, then there’s also a takeaway window to the right of the door.

The Pudding Pantry is a quiet, relaxed place, which perfectly suited my mood. Both inside and out, the furniture is wooden (other than the sofa), which goes with the wooden floorboards and counter.

I’d come for brunch, ordering an interesting combo for breakfast: scrambled eggs, homemade beans, mushrooms and two generously-proportioned American-style pancakes with a pot of maple syrup, plus some toast on the side. I paired this with a flat white, my typical first coffee of the day when I’m out. Having had a number of Ozone flat whites through the year, this was very representative of the type, holding no great surprises.

Afterwards, chatting with one of the owners, I got a peak at the future of The Pudding Pantry. Although there are no plans to move away from Ozone, they’d like to get a smaller, third grinder for decaf (which is currently on the second grinder), freeing up the second grinder for a guest espresso, which could come from a local roaster such as Outpost Coffee Roasters. In addition, The Pudding Pantry would like to go further down the speciality route by introducing a brew bar, so watch this space.

As an aside, Martha, The Pudding Pantry’s barista, had met me at Caffè Culture earlier in the year, and had seen through my disguise (damn it!). On my way out, I bumped into Rory, from newly-opened Greenhood Coffee House. He’d been sitting outside, stalking me on twitter, and, before I left, extracted a promised that I’d visit Greenhood the following day. So much for going in there incognito (double damn!).

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