Espressno C

The Espressno logo: a smiling, yellow cup of coffeeToday’s Saturday Supplement is a blatant piece of self-publicity if ever there was one. As some of you may know, my friend Paul, wearer of many hats, possessor of too many first names (and, consequentially, too few surnames) and all-round-good-egg, has a podcast called Espressno (and no, I don’t know why he called it that either).

What you may not realise is that last month, while I was in Sheffield on Coffee Spot business, I made a sneaky day-trip to Leeds where I met Paul, who, somewhat foolishly, sat me down, handed me a microphone and then pressed record. The result is Episode C of Espressno, half-an-hour of me talking and occasionally letting Paul get a word in edgeways (It’s only fair, it is his podcast after all).

I would encourage you to listen to it, not least because Paul needs another listener…


This is normally the point where I say “you can read more of my thoughts after the gallery” but let’s face it, it’s a podcast, innit? I mean, where’s the pictures in that? And, before you foolishly ask, no-one deserves to see a picture of Paul.

So instead here’s a link where you can download the podcast:

http://www.espressno.org/episodes/episode-c-basketball-bloggings-loss-is-our-gain4/3/2015


On a slightly more serious note, if you’ve ever wondered why, or indeed how, I came to set up the Coffee Spot, then you really should have a listen. It’s something I’ve been considering writing about for a while now, but it always seemed rather self-serving, so I’d like to that Paul for saving me the bother.

I also talk (at length, so don’t say you haven’t been warned) about the philosophy behind the Coffee Spot, what I’m trying to achieve and why I don’t write about places I don’t like. Again, it’s something I’ve been considering writing about, so again, thank you Paul for saving me the bother. Now, if you could just knock out a transcript of the whole thing and bash it into shape for an article, that would be wonderful. Good chap.

However, you’ll be relieved to hear that it’s not all about me and the Coffee Spot. Paul (yes, I did let him get a word in every now and then) and I pontificate on what makes a good coffee shop, on the importance of getting the right staff and what we look for in a neighbourhood coffee shop. We also talk about our journeys into coffee, how we got where we are today and the perils of person-eating sofas. Finally, I give my (general) opinion about other coffee blogs, why I think they’re a good thing and why you should support independent coffee shops.

I should point out that this was totally unscripted, unrehearsed and, as far as I can tell, unedited. So, if you’ve ever wanted to hear me say “umm” and “err” a lot, this is the podcast for you (thanks for that, Paul). It’s also full of unintended digressions and Paul and I forgetting what on earth we were going to say. And what we were talking about. And, at one point, where we were. It’s a miracle we remembered who we were at times.

Honestly, it’s riveting.

On the subject of forgetting things, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to Andrew Tolley, along with his brother Nick and sister Laura, for completely forgetting their names… I’d also like to apologise to Alex for mangling the “Bottega” in La Bottega Milanese. And, of course, I’d like to thank Paul for leaving all those bits in…


Anyway, if I’ve not convinced you to listen to it yet, I never will, so here’s the link again:

http://www.espressno.org/episodes/episode-c-basketball-bloggings-loss-is-our-gain4/3/2015

Download it, listen to it, tell all your friends. And your enemies. And everyone else. And listen to all the other episodes of Espressno. All two of them (so far…)…

Which reminds me, at the end of Episode C, Paul mentioned that there would be an Episode C+… Well, now it’s out and you can read all about it in the new Saturday Supplement.


If you are interesting in learning more about any of the fine Coffee Spots mentioned in this episode of Espressno, you can see what I made of them here:


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7 thoughts on “Espressno C

  1. Pingback: Espressno C+ | Brian's Coffee Spot

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