The third shortlist in this year’s Awards is for the “Coffee Spot with the Best Basement/Mezzanine” Award, which last year went to Java Roastery, Moseley Village. As regular readers will know, I have a soft spot for Coffee Spots with good basements, although this year I have really struggled to find any! As a result, I’ve expanded the Award to include mezzanines, another favourite feature of mine, but even so, this year’s shortlist is very short indeed!
At first sight, mezzanines (upstairs) have very little in common with basements (downstairs) but they are both spaces separate from the main coffee shop where you can get away from it all. This award celebrates those Coffee Spots with outstanding basements or mezzanines, the sort of places you want to go and spend all day in! It also includes those Coffee Spots which, while not technically basements, have that basement-like feel to them.
You can see the shortlist after the gallery.
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5There are five Coffee Spots on the shortlist this year, all listed in order of publication.
Fittingly, our first entry. Bloom Building and Coffee, has an impressive mezzanine. On an industrial estate in Birkenhead (winning a place on the Most Unlikely Place to Find a Coffee Spot shortlist), it’s spread across multiple rooms (earning a spot on the Best Physical Space shortlist). The mezzanine is at the back, above the offices of the Open Door Charity, hosted in the Bloom Building (putting it on the Brian’s Coffee Spot Special Award shortlist too).
Stay in Merseyside, but crossing the river to Liverpool itself, Crosby Coffee on Lark Lane occupies a long, thin building with a wonderful, cosy basement. Crosby Coffee has also made it onto this year’s shortlists for the Best Filter Coffee (see the picture to the left), Best Cake (once again I refer you to your left) and Happiest Staff (sadly no picture for this one) Awards.
Our third entry is Ditto Coffee in Liverpool, which is another with a very fine mezzanine, tucked away above the counter. It’s the sort of place where you can take your coffee and spend a whole day without even noticing it. The shop itself is quite small, so the mezzanine gives the rest of the space a basement-like feel. Ditto Coffee has also been shortlisted for this year’s Happiest Staff Award.
New York City‘s Patent Coffee is a genuine coffee shop in a basement, tucked away underneath the Radio Wave building in the heart of Manhattan. It’s not a big space, with just enough room for the counter and three seats, giving it a really cosy feel. It also earned Patent Coffee a place on this year’s shortlists for the Smallest Coffee Spot and Happiest Staff Awards.
The final entry on this year’s very short shortlist is Lowpoint, which occupies a basement-like space in New Orleans. Lowpoint opened a year ago, taking the place of an old favourite, Sólo Espresso, which itself made it onto the 2018 shortlist (which had 15 entries!). Very much the spirutual successor to Sólo Espresso, Lowpoint offers some excellent coffee and the same warm welcome, which also sees on the Best Neighbourhood Coffee Spot shortlist.
The winner will be announced on Monday, 2nd January. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out the other 19 Coffee Spot Awards for 2022.
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