Author Archives: Brian Williams

About Brian Williams

Author of Brian's Coffee Spot, you can read all about me in the "About Me" section of the blog (www.brian-coffee-spot)

Sweetleaf Williamsburg

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A mug of black filter coffee in a classic black American diner mug, adorned with Sweatleaf's logo.I’m off to America again next month, so I thought it was about time I finished publishing all the places from my trip this time last year! I therefore present Sweetleaf in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which I popped into in March, so at least the snow in the pictures is still topical!

The second of Sweetleaf’s three locations (the other two being in Long Island City, Queens, with the original on Jackson Avenue), the Williamsburg branch opened in 2012, sharing the building with the Modern Spaces estate agents (realtors for American readers). It’s a long, thin space, decked out in reclaimed wood and exposed brick, with a gorgeous, partly-tiled floor, quite a contrast to the modern, open office at the other end of the building. In look and feel, it has more in common with a British pub than with a coffee shop, right down to the table football! It is, by the way, amazing.

Like many American coffee shops, Sweetleaf roasts its own coffee, the Williamsburg branch offering the house-blend, decaf and a single-origin on espresso, plus three more, one on the obligatory bulk-brew filter, the second as an iced filter, with the third on pour-over (V60). There’s also a small range of cakes and pastries.

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Ezra & Gil

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The Ezra & Gil motto "Coffee & Provisions" from one of the signs outside.Ezra & Gil’s one of the many Manchester Coffee Spots that popped up in 2015. In Ezra & Gil’s case, it’s in good company, sitting on the corner of Hilton and Newton Streets, almost equidistant between TAKK and Foundation Coffee House (which I finally visited a mere 18 months later). The likes of Fig + Sparrow and North Tea Power are also nearby. You could do a coffee-crawl taking in all five, while walking less than ½ km!

I discovered Ezra & Gil, which opened in late July, primarily through social media, where I was tempted by picture after picture of some lovely-looking food. Unsurprisingly, Ezra & Gil is as much about the food as it is about the coffee, as well as selling a range of groceries on the side. In this respect, it reminded me of Bridport’s Soulshine Café. Ezra, by the way, is Hebrew for “helper”, while Gil means “happiness”.

The food, with an impressive all-day breakfast range and lots of other goodies, is cooked on-site in a large kitchen behind the counter, while the coffee is from local roasters Heart & Graft. The famous Barnraiser blend’s on espresso, with a single-origin on V60 for filter fans.

November 2017: Ezra & Gil now uses another Manchester roaster, ManCoCo, with its standard espresso blend, plus a single-origin on V60.

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Coffee with Luke: a Brewing Masterclass

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Luke Pochron, at his Brewing Masterclass, Coffee with Luke, simultaneously pouring from a Chemex into two cups.A coffee blogger’s life is a strange one. Imagine the scene: it’s the day before Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve Eve?) and you’ve got no plans. Most coffee shops are either shut or thinking of shutting. Time to put your feet up and relax before the inevitable chaos of the Coffee Spot Awards. Then your phone goes beep. It’s Luke. Do I want to attend a coffee brewing masterclass? In London. Tomorrow. Christmas Eve. Oh, go on then, you silver-tongued devil, you’ve talked me into it.

The particular Luke in question, Luke Pochron, is launching his Brewing Masterclasses, with the first one this Thursday, 28th January. What I attended was a dry run, Luke wanting to put himself through his paces with a “friendly” audience. The location was Doppio Coffee’s Warehouse in Shoreditch, an interesting combination of espresso bar, showroom and workshop on Hanbury Street, a stone’s throw from the likes of Nude Espresso.

I must confess that I approached it with a healthy dose of scepticism, considering myself pretty decent when it came to making filter coffee. An hour or so later, I left with wealth of knowledge and have since taken my coffee making up a notch or two…

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Tilt

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Details of the new (to me, at least) A-board from outside Tilt in Birmingham, promising craft beer, speciality coffee and pinball.To the best of my knowledge, Tilt, which opened its doors on Birmingham’s City Arcade in November 2015, is just one of two speciality coffee-and-pinball places in the UK, the other being Chiswick’s Chief Coffee, which opened slightly before Tilt. Mind you, Tilt’s not just coffee-and-pinball. It’s coffee-pinball-and-craft-beer, with up to 18 different draught beers. Oh, and there’s wine. And spirits. And cocktails. And cider. Not to mention twelve different loose-leaf teas and five types of hot chocolate. In fact, the only thing that’s really limited is the food, where there’s a choice of just two cakes. You even have more choice of floors (three) than you do of cake!

Tilt, by the way, is very serious about its coffee, with owner, Kirk, bringing in coffee from roasters around the world. There’s a concise espresso-based menu, featuring a guest single-origin, but the real treat is the Frozen Solid Coffee Project, where Kirk takes a bag or two of coffee, weighs it out in doses and then vacuum packs and freezes it. The coffee is ground from frozen and made using a Kalita Wave filter, allowing Tilt to offer a staggering range of single-origins (26 at the time of writing).

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Lanark Coffee

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The A-board outside Lanark Coffee on Hackney RoadI came across Lanark Coffee when it took over Drink, Shop & Dash (next to King’s Cross Station) in September 2015. Originally, this was only for a trial period, until the end of the year, but the good news is that this was extended for the whole of 2016. To celebrate, I thought I’d call in on the original Lanark on Hackney Road, sticking my head around the door on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Drink, Shop & Dash is pretty small, but Hackney Road is not much bigger. In fact, in terms of floor space, it might even be smaller, but it packs more in, food joining the stripped-back coffee menu of espresso, espresso with milk and individual pour-over through the Chemex. Lanark buys its coffee in small batches of 3-4 kg at a time from (largely) London-based roasters, before moving onto the next one.

Lanark opened in the summer of 2014, the brainchild of Greg and Dom, who split their time between the two sites. However, whenever I’ve been in, I’ve only ever met Greg. Of course, I’m not suggesting that Greg has an imaginary friend, but it does make you wonder…

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Ginger & Co. Coffee

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A stylised outline of a cup in orange paint, with the words "est. 2015" underneath.Shrewsbury’s speciality coffee scene has come a long way since I visited in September 2013, when the delightful Shrewsbury Coffeehouse was the only game in town. Since then there have been several notable newcomers, particularly in 2015, when today’s Coffee Spot, Ginger & Co. Coffee, opened its doors on Princess Street. I am, by the way, indebted to the talented Cherie Jerrard (if you haven’t seen her coffee shop sketches, you should definitely check them out), both for the invitation to make a return visit Shrewsbury and for drawing my attention to Ginger & Co.

Ginger & Co. sits on the ground floor of a lovely old building, occupying an L-shaped space, with seating at the front and the counter along the top part of the L. Beyond this, up a couple of steps and through a narrow doorway, is the back room, a long, thin space, flooded with natural light from the transparent ceiling.

Ginger & Co. has a standard espresso-based menu, plus a single-origin on pour-over from Herefordshire’s Method Roastery. This is supplemented by loose-leaf tea from Brew Tea Co, along with an interesting selection of sandwiches and cakes, all prepared in the “espresso-sized” kitchen at the back.

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Avenue Coffee Roasting Co

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Avenue Coffee's Diedrich roaster, with a batch of freshly-roasted beans in the cooling pan.Avenue Coffee grew out of the Avenue G café on Byres Road in Glasgow’s West End. The intention was for Avenue G to roast its own coffee and the second branch, on the Great Western Road, was designed with this in mind. More of a coffee shop than the original, the mezzanine level at the rear of the shop was set aside as the roastery and Tom, then head roaster, oversaw the procurement and installation of the Diedrich roaster.

However, Tom left and the roasting duties were shared by Katelyn and Todd, who have now been joined by Colin, who they are training up as a roaster in his own right. These days, Avenue Coffee roasts around 100 kg a week, of which between 40-60 kg is for its own use (one-third at Great Western Road, two-thirds at Avenue G) with the remainder going to the likes of Glasgow’s Spitfire Espresso and Rialto in Eyemouth. Output includes espresso blends (for example, Spitfire has its own bespoke espresso blend) and single-origins, a cracking decaf (which I’ve enjoyed at home) and several seasonal single-origins roasted for filter. These are all available to buy in the two Avenue stores as well as on-line.

May 2018: I’ve recently learnt that Avenue Coffee is no more. However, both Katelyn and Todd now have their own coffee roasting companies, Common Coffee in Edinburgh (Katelyn) and The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow (Todd, along with Courtney, another ex-Avenue Coffee person).

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Spitfire Espresso

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The Spitfire Espresso logo, as painted on the wall of the shop in Candleriggs.Another of Glasgow’s growing band of coffee shops, Spitfire Espresso joined the fray in 2015. Unlike the subject of Monday’s Coffee Spot, Meadow Road Coffee, which is taking speciality coffee out west, Spitfire Espresso is right in the centre, on the corner of Candleriggs and Ingram Street, less than 10 minutes’ walk from both Glasgow’s Queen Street and Central Stations. It’s also close to the likes of Laboratorio Espresso and Riverhill Coffee Bar and, in the other direction, McCune Smith. Spitfire also uses a local, Glaswegian roaster, in this case Avenue Coffee, which provides Spitfire with a bespoke espresso blend.

Spitfire Espresso is a bright, spacious spot, with high ceilings and plenty of seating, including tables outside on both Candleriggs and Ingram Street. There are also generous windows on both sides, adding to the bright interior. There’s a strong World War II/swinging 50s theme, with a rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack. As well as the aforementioned espresso, there’s also an all-day eggs menu, plus sandwiches and cakes, with the egg dishes and sandwiches named after WWII aircraft (eg Hawker Hurricane, P51 Mustang and Lancaster Bomber, not to mentioned the eponymous Spitfire: scrambled, poached or fried eggs on toast).

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Terrone & Co at Netil Market

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A flat white, seen from above, with a simple tulip pattern latte art.It’s been well over a year since I ventured into northeast London in search of Terrone & Co and the Irrepressible Edy Piro. Back then, I paid a visit to the Terrone & Co stall at the Village Green Market in Hackney Downs. A few weeks later, Edy, the man behind Terrone & Co, decided to rationalise the number of pop-ups and stalls he was running and the Village Green stall was no more. Hopefully the visit I paid to Terrone & Co’s original venue at Netil Market on the last Saturday before Christmas won’t provide a similar kiss of death…

Occupying a convenient pitch right at the entrance to Netil Market, which is on the south side of Westgate Street, between the railway lines and London Fields, Terrone operates out of an old container (similar to the one that Beany Green uses on the South Bank). Although the operation is strictly takeaway (so bring your own cup), there are a couple of tables should you want to take the weight off your feet and, as well as coffee, Terrone also serves a wide range of spirits from its well-stocked shelves. Beware though: Terrone & Co only opens on Saturdays.

April 2019: Sadly Terrone at Netil Market is no more, although its espresso bar, Sottoscala, is still going strong.

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Meadow Road Coffee

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The words "Meadow Road" written as is on a street sign, in black on a white background, while perched on top is a black and white line drawing of a bird with a coffee bean in its beak.Glasgow used to trail its neighbour (and great rival) Edinburgh in the speciality coffee stakes. However, in the last couple of years, Glasgow has been catching up fast through a new breed of coffee shops such as Meadow Road Coffee. Traditionally, speciality coffee in Glasgow has clustered around either the West End or, more recently, the City Centre, but Meadow Road bucks that trend, situated at the far end of the Dumbarton Road, which runs due west from the West End’s southwest corner.

Before purists such as myself cry foul, Meadow Road Coffee is indeed on Meadow Road, on the corner where it meets Dumbarton Road, giving the coffee shop windows on both sides. Although north facing, it catches the morning sun and is generally filled with a pleasing, subdued light. A small rectangle, Meadow Road has a simple layout, counter at the back, seating along the windows. A good deal of the interior is given over to a small but impressive kitchen which turns out an equally impressive range of food, vying with the coffee in terms of quality. The latter comes from local roasters, Dear Green Coffee, on both espresso and filter, the latter supplemented by regularly-rotating guests.

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