Category Archives: Cafe/Roaster

Coffee Spots where the coffee shop itself roasts the coffee (either in-house or physically on-site). This includes large roasters who have opened their own cafes/coffee shops.

Cafe/roasters where the roasting actually takes place on-site will also be in the “Roastery” category.

Rival Bros Coffee Bar

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Two bare-chested men, dressed as old-fashioned pugilists, but each holding a large coffee cup in their hands.On my first visit to Philadelphia in 2014, I missed Rival Bros who, back then, were a roastery with a growing reputation and a coffee truck that wasn’t open at weekends. Naturally, I was there for the weekend. Two months later, having waited until I was safely out of town, Rival Bros opened its first (and so far only) shop on the corner of 24th and Lombard Streets.

It’s a brick-built building in a residential part of south Philadelphia, on the end of a row of two-/three-storey terrace houses. In many ways the setting, on a sunny March afternoon, couldn’t be lovelier. The exterior brickwork is painted grey and white, while the interior has white-washed walls with dark grey woodwork and ceiling. Windows, glass doors and plenty of lights make it a wonderful, bright spot.

The focus is firmly on the coffee, allowing Rival Bros to showcase its output. There’s a blend (Whistle & Cuss), single-origin (Ethiopian) and decaf on espresso, the Revolver blend (which I’ve previously had as espresso) on bulk-brew and a choice of four single-origins through the Chemex. If you’re hungry, there’s a small range of bread-based goodies, including toast and toasted sandwiches, plus cake, of course.

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Coutume Instituutti

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The Coutume logo painted in the window of Coutume Instituutti: a red circle, blue circle and yellow tear-drop in a triangular arrangement above the word "Coutume". The red circle is at the top, the blue circle and tear-drop below.One of the two branches of Coutume which opened between my visits to Paris in 2013 and 2014, Coutume Instituutti is a collaboration with the Finnish Institute. Located on rue des Ecoles, the entrance is around the corner at 33, rue du Sommerard, a stone’s throw from one of my favourite Paris museums, Musee du Moyen Ages (Museum of the Middle Ages). However, during office hours, you can also get to the café through the Institute itself, via its step-free entrance on rue des Ecoles.

Since Coutume’s running the café, all the coffee is roasted by Coutume, with the usual selection on offer. There’s a small, very French, espresso menu, filter through V60 or Chemex, plus cold brew (I visited during the summer of cold brew) and tea. However, Instituutti has a quite un-French system of ordering and paying at the counter, then waiting for your coffee, the first time I’ve seen this in a French café of any sort. Having not been to any Nordic cafés, I can’t tell if this is the Finnish influence at work.

The café itself is a large, sparsely populated space, which, if I allow myself one criticism, can sometimes feel cold and clinical.

March 2018: it seems that the Finnish Institute is closed for refurbishment until the summer. Whether or not Coutume will remain as the house cafe when it reopens remains to be seen.

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Café Lomi

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An espresso is a classic earthenware Inker cup from Café LomiI don’t know what the French for “hipster” is, but “Café Lomi” might be a fairly good stab. It’s the closest I’ve come in Paris to what I think of as a hipster café, right down to the undecorated walls, exposed air-conditioning conduits and bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The clientele was pretty hipster too; for example, I wasn’t the only one taking pictures of his coffee and every other person was on a laptop, Macs outnumbering Windows two-to-one. The clinching argument? It carries Caffeine Magazine. I rest my case…

Putting pointless classification to one side, Café Lomi is a café/roaster in the northern reaches of Paris. Café-roasters seem to be much more common in Paris than they are in the UK; of the limited number of third-wave Parisian cafés I’ve visited, Lomi is the third, joining La Caféothèque and Coutume when it opened in 2012. In Lomi’s case, it is a café at the front, and a roaster at the back, where the chunky Giesen turns out espresso blends and single origins both for use in Lomi and to supply other cafés and restaurants. Sadly you can’t wander into the back and see the roaster in action though…

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Finca

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The store front of Finca on Great Western Road, Dorchester, the bulbs inside glowing in the fading evening light.Finca is Dorchester’s second speciality coffee shop, coming after the outstanding Number 35 Coffee House & Kitchen. One might think it a little unfair that Dorchester has two such places, when many struggle to have even one, but this is how it is.

Finca opened last summer and joins the select breed of coffee-shop-cum-roaster. While the majority are quite big operations, with 10-15 kg roasters, with their own dedicated area of a large building (North Berwick’s Steampunk Coffee springs to mind), Finca has more in common with Glasgow’s Papercup Coffee Company. Both are small coffee shops which roast on-site and, while in the case of Papercup, the roasting is done at the back, at Finca, the roaster, a bright-red, 1 kg Genesis CBR-1200, sits proudly on the counter-top for all to see.

Finca has a stock of three green beans, two standard and one guest, and it roasts after hours, one or two evenings a week. Roaster aside, Finca is a friendly, neighbourhood coffee shop, although it boasts a decent food offering for such a small place, including cake, soup and toasted sandwiches, all prepared in the small kitchen at the back. It’s even got a dedicated toast menu!

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Tamp Culture

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An espresso being poured via a single-spout basket at Tamp Culture in ReadingFor a long time, speciality coffee in Reading has meant the (excellent) Workhouse Coffee with its two branches on Oxford Road and King Street. However, that is slowly changing with the arrival of several new players, including the intriguing Tamp Culture, which has been at the entrance to the Oracle centre since April of this year.

Technically a coffee cart, Tamp operates perhaps the most impressive set-up I’ve seen, with a counter that puts many a shop to shame and a range of coffee-kit and merchandising that surpasses many a speciality outlet. What’s even more impressive is that whole edifice is dismantled every evening and packed away in the Piaggio Ape that forms the backbone of the operation. There’s even outdoor seating and a nice big awning to keep the rain/sun off the counter.

Like Workhouse, Tamp roasts all its own coffee, with a range of around 20 single-origin beans. Two of these are always on offer, the choice rotating on a weekly basis, with plenty more beans available to buy. As well as the usual espresso-based options, Tamp also offers Aeropress and pour-over filter options (these aren’t on the menu, so you have to ask).

July 2020: Following enforced closure due to COVID-19, Tamp Culture has reopened, initially for takeaway and then, from the start of July, for sit-in service. You can see what I made of it when I visited at the end of the month.

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Steampunk, The Warehouse

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Thumbnail - Steampunk (DSC_6712t)I first discovered Steampunk as a roaster when I visited Machina Espresso in Edinburgh in April 2014.

I tried the Tiger Stripes blend and was so impressed that I bought a bag to take home with me. Back then I only knew of Steampunk as a roaster and didn’t realise that it had recently opened The Warehouse, a large café in its home town of North Berwick, just along the coast from Edinburgh.

So, on my next trip to Edinburgh, I made a point of heading east to North Berwick. I’m pleased to report that I was as delighted by The Warehouse as I was by that first espresso that I had at Machina Espresso!

Spread over two floors of a lovely old building, which retains many of its original features, The Warehouse is an ideal space for a roaster-cum-café (I’ve covered the roasting side of Steampunk in a separate Saturday Supplement). There’s a large, exterior courtyard, which, on the sunny day I was there, saw good use, while downstairs you share space with both roastery and counter. Upstairs, there’s table service and a full food menu, which is all prepared in the kitchen in the corner.

November 2015: I ran into the Steampunk guys at Cup North, and discovered that Steampunk now only roasts single-origins.

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Ultimo Coffee, Graduate Hospital

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The Ultimo symbol, a Roman Eagle, here cut out of an iron plate.I’ve saved the first until last, so to speak. On my trip to Philadelphia back in March, Ultimo Coffee was my first port of call, fresh off the train from Boston, whisked there by my generous host for the weekend, Greg of Coffee Guru App fame. It seems appropriate that of the nine Coffee Spots I visited (11 if you count The Franklin Fountain and Jany’s), it’s the last to be written up.

The Graduate Hospital branch on Catharine Street is the second of Philadelphia’s two Ultimos, the westernmost Coffee Spot that I visited (the original, on S 15th Street, is a long way out of town and would easily have been the furthest south had I made it there; next time, maybe). After leaving the Amtrak Station and crossing the river, turn right and it’s a straight run down 22nd Street to Ultimo, making it a logical place to start my coffee tour.

Ultimo serves Counter Culture coffee (with occasional guest roasters) with an emphasis on filter. Chemex is available until 11 o’clock in the morning, with V60 on the go throughout the day. There’s a choice of three single-origins, with single-origin house and guest espressos, plus decaf. There’s a range of sandwiches and cakes too.

December 2016: Ultimo now roasts all its own coffee which it serves in both its stores.

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CRAFT London Coffee

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The word "CRAFT" written above the word "LONDON" in the window of CRAFT London, the O2 Arena in the background.CRAFT London is a new project by chef Stevie Parle and designer Tom Dixon. As the name suggests, it’s focused on the craft of making things. Located on the Greenwich Peninsular, a stone’s throw from both the O2 and North Greenwich tube station, it will ultimately be a café, restaurant and bar.

I visited it on Friday, five days after the café, occupying the ground floor, had opened, having been alerted to it by Robbie Calvert, who is café manager, head barista and (ultimately) roaster, all rolled into one. I had previously run into Robbie at Edinburgh’s Artisan Roast, where he’d impressed me with his passion (and his coffee).

I’d heard that he’d come down to London, so I was keen to find out what he was up to. As luck would have it, I was already going to the O2 that evening for a Caro Emerald concert, so snuck in just before closing time to catch up with Robbie and his new venture.

I have to say that I was impressed. Although CRAFT London had only been open for five days, it seemed to me to be a pretty decent operation with lots of exciting things in the pipeline!

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La Caféothèque

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The La Caféothèque logo, a stylised picture of a woman, sitting on the floor, drawn so that her torso looks like a coffee roaster, holding an espresso cup above her head.In terms of Paris’ third-wave coffee scene, La Caféothèque has been around forever, first opening its doors nine years ago when even the London scene was in its infancy. Since then, it’s been steadily going about its business, that of educating the French coffee-drinking public that there’s more to coffee than “un café, s’il vous plait”.

Of all my Parisian Coffee Spots, it feels the most French, from its look and feel, all the way down to the ownership and staff, all of whom were French. La Caféothèque roasts all its own coffee, with owner and head roaster, Gloria, working the 3kg Toper in the front of the store, from dawn until dusk (and often beyond). You can have any of 20 different beans (all single origins, no blends here) via any of 10 different brew methods.

When it comes to seating, you’re also spoiled for choice. There are two counters (three, if you count the retail counter as you come in), with four separate salons, spread around a sprawling old building located across the Seine from the Ile St Louis. With a small selection of food and a mouth-watering range of cakes, tarts and pastries, there’s something for everyone.

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Hot Numbers, Gwydir Street

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The new Hot Numbers logo from the sign outside the original branch on Gwydir Street, Cambridge.I first visited Hot Numbers on Gwydir Street in the summer of 2014, when it was the one place that pretty much everyone recommended to me in Cambridge. These days, there’s much more competition, with the second Hot Numbers (the cafe/roastery on Trumpington Street), plus the likes of The Espresso Library, Urban Larder and Novi, but the original Hot Numbers still has plenty to offer.

Spread over two large rooms on the ground floor of the old Dake’s brewery, Hot Numbers is a café, single-origin roaster and music venue. The coffee is the main draw, Hot Numbers only serving single-origins, all roasted in-house at Trumpington Street. There’s a choice of two espresso beans (with milk and without), plus decaf and another single-origin on offer through Aeropress, Clever Dripper or Syphon. There’s also a decent range of loose-leaf tea.

If you’re not that obsessive about your coffee, it’s still a great place. To start with, the atmosphere is lovely and you can sit in either of the two rooms, which offer a variety of seating. The cakes, with offerings from local bakers such as Afternoon Tease and Fitzbillies, are amazing, and there are decent breakfast and lunch menus too.

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