Continuing the food theme, we have another new Coffee Spot Award for 2013, the “Best Cheese Toastie” Award. This might be a one-off: cheese toasties are not really high on my list of culinary delights. On the other hand, having had some quite lovely cheese toasties this year, maybe I should be eating more of them…

This all started because I went to Newcastle’s 9Bar, a place that boasted the “world’s best cheese toastie”. Well, if you’re going to make that sort of claim, then there needs to be an award to go with it! However, given my lack of cheese toastie eating, it’s a fairly short shortlist…

You can see the shortlist after the gallery. 

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There are four Coffee Spots on the shortlist this year, all listed in order of publication.

Café Plume

Montréal’s Café Plume has many fine qualities. I remember liking it a lot when I visited, enjoying the decor, and particularly savouring the coffee. I did not, at the time, realise the significance of my choice of hot, cheese-based snack…

Le Lapin Pressé

Staying in Montréal, we have Le Lapin Pressé, a self-titled “grillcheeserie”, a place which specialises in coffee and grilled cheese sandwiches! Indeed, Le Lapin Pressé was recommended to me as somewhere with a reputation for excellent coffee and grilled-cheese sandwiches. Having tried both, I can confirm that the reputation is well-earned, although my notes on the toastie itself were limited to “it was delicious”.

9Bar Coffee

Newcastle’s 9Bar is the place that started all of this, with the claim of having the world’s best cheese toastie…  To quote myself from the time: “The result was surprisingly wonderful. World’s best? I’m not qualified to say. Pretty damn good? Definitely. The bread, a white bloomer, was toasted to perfection […]. The cheese, a very mature cheddar, was rich in flavour.” At least I was paying attention that time!

Hart’s Bakery

Okay, I confess, I was struggling a little with this shortlist since I really don’t eat cheese toasties. I really don’t know why since the three I had this year were all excellent. However, there it is. Anyway, I was in Bristol last week when I popped into Hart’s Bakery for lunch. Someone had recommended the sour-dough bread to me, and what should I see on the menu, but a sour-dough cheese toastie? The rest, as they say, is history… Hart’s is also shortlisted for the “Best Cake” and “Best Coffee Spot near a Railway Station” Awards.

And the winner is 9Bar Coffee
Runners-up: Le Lapin Pressé, Hart’s Bakery

You can find all 20 of the 2013 Coffee Spot Awards here.

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