Category Archives: Coffee Shops

Coffee Spots with an emphasis on serving coffee

Brew Lab | Artisan Coffee Bar

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Detail from the menu board at Brew Lab in Edinburgh, showing one of two espresso choices, this one (a washed Guatemalan from Union) for use in drinks with milk.Brew Lab has been a fixture of Edinburgh’s speciality coffee scene on South College Street since the end of the summer in 2012, coincidentally opening roughly when the Coffee Spot started. I first visited in December 2012 and have been a semi-regular visitor ever since, watching as it’s undergone a series of slow evolutions, the biggest of which was last year’s change of ownership to Union Hand-roasted.

Throughout it all, Brew Lab has remained pretty constant, turning out excellent coffee in a fairly unique space, which manages to feel both cramped and spacious, with knocked-through walls and low ceilings. While the bare brick/concrete walls are slightly more decorated than they once were, it still feels unfinished.

Brew Lab was one of the pioneers of pour-over coffee. These days there are two options on espresso (one black, one for milk) and two on filter, one batch brew, one pour-over (Kalita Wave). One espresso and one filter are always from Union, while the others are supplied by guest roasters. There’s also decaf (from Union) on pour-over and a selection of four cold brew options (black, white, chocolate and nitro), plus a cold-brew cocktail. Finally, there are breakfast and lunches menus, plus cake all day.

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Café Boscanova

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Café Boscanova is the perfect find on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I suspect it would be the perfect find whatever the weather, but I can only comment on my first-hand experience. Perhaps I should come back to test a range of weather conditions. I also suspect that it would be the perfect find regardless of the time of day, except perhaps the evening, when it is inconveniently shut…

Boscombe, on the Dorset coast, is not perhaps where I would first look for top notch coffee, but acting on a tip-off, I sought out Café Boscanova. It looked promising from the outside, but on stepping inside I was sold. Wooden floors, brick walls, stuff everywhere: it’s a very busy, lively and above all fun place. The staff might be the happiest I’ve seen in a coffee shop and their enthusiasm is infectious.  The coffee is outstanding, the food interesting (in a good way). Really, the only thing I can fault it for is being 100 miles away from my house…

March 2015: Café Boscanova is now open on Wednesdays! You can also check out what Café Boscanova calls its “specialist coffee outlet”, South Coast Roast, over in Bournemouth.

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Artisan Roast, Broughton Street

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There are those who say that Artisan Roast has been at the forefront of the speciality coffee revolution sweeping Edinburgh during the last few years. I’m not sufficiently qualified to rule on that, but I do know that several of the excellent Coffee Spots which have opened in recent years will openly acknowledge their debt to Artisan Roast. I can also say, with authority, that Artisan Roast is one of my all-time favourite Coffee Spots.

It’s a small place, with just two rooms and a clear focus on the coffee. From the street, you walk into the main room, where you find the espresso machine sharing the space with a cluster of tables. At the back, you’ll find the Mooch, with its padded benches and, in the winter, log-burning stove. There are few better spaces in which to drink high-quality coffee.

Talking of the coffee, Artisan Roast, as the name implies, roasts all its own coffee, with the beans on sale on-line and in-store. There’s a mind-boggling array of ways to make and take your coffee, with all the beans on offer via all the methods. It was too much choice for my poor brain, so I just had an espresso…

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The Coffee Company

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Tucked away in Bebington, on the Liverpool side of the Wirral, The Coffee Company is so new that even Google Local refuses to believe it exists. However, don’t let Google put you off, otherwise you’ll miss a real gem! The Coffee Company in Bebington sums up all that is good about the independent coffee scene in the UK. It’s an honest-to-goodness coffee shop, done with passion and care.

For me, a big test of a place is do I feel comfortable? Do I feel welcomed? In the case of The Coffee Company, it’s a big yes on both counts, right from the moment I walked in the door. It just felt a great place to sit and watch the world go by, to read the paper or natter with friends (all popular options while I was there). Or even to write a blog post…

The staff were lovely, very busy, but always friendly (you’d think this was a given, but all too often it’s not). Chuck in free wifi and the only thing that’s missing was somewhere to plug my laptop in. On the other hand, chuck in a few power sockets and you might never shift me!

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Boston Tea Party, Stokes Croft

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A recent addition to the successful Boston Tea Party chain can be found in Stokes Croft in Bristol. As my friend who lives there (Stokes Croft, not, contrary to rumour, the Boston Tea Party itself), aptly put it: “just what Stokes Croft needs, another café”. When it opened, there were already three excellent places within a two minute walk (and now there’s a fourth across the road), so the Boston Tea Party needs to be pretty special if it’s going to make a mark.

Don’t worry, it is.

It’s got the usual Boston Tea Party coffee, the wide range of cakes and food, but what makes it stand out is the seating. Well, the seating and the atmosphere, which sort of goes with the seating. Well, the seating, atmosphere and friendly staff. You get the picture.

It’s a got a broad patio out front which provides some protection from the breeze and the noise of the busy Cheltenham Road (I stress some) and inside there is every sort of seat you could possible want. Beyond that, it’s just a great place to hang out on your own or with friends (or, in my case, with my laptop and camera).

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Exploding Bakery

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Excellent espresso in a glass from the Exploding Bakery, ExeterExeter’s Exploding Bakery ticks so many boxes. For starters, it’s just outside Exeter Central Station, so it’s excellent when waiting for your train. As the name suggests (“Bakery”, rather than “Exploding”) it’s a bakery, so there’s always fresh, baked-on-the-premises cakes. If you’re after lunch, there’s focaccia, frittata and soup. The range isn’t huge, but the ethos is quality over quantity. Then there’s the coffee, along with tea and hot chocolate (regular and white). Best of all, it’s a real, working bakery which shares the premises with the coffee shop, so you can watch the staff baking their wonderful bread as you drink their coffee and eat their cake.

The Exploding Bakery has come a long way since I first visited it in October 2012. Back then it was definitely a bakery that served coffee, a couple of tables and an espresso machine tucked into a busy, thriving bakery, baristas and bakers sharing the space. These days, it looks and feels much more like a coffee shop, offering a house espresso from Monmouth, with regular guests on the second grinder, plus filter coffee through the V60, again using a range of guest roasters. And, of course, the bakery is still there.

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Oystercatchers Cafe

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I’m struggling to describe the Oystercatchers Café. It’s a charming, old-fashioned British café with lovely wooden floors, tables and chairs. Then again, it’s a modern coffee shop with sofas and free wifi. It serves an old-fashioned Full English Breakfast, but caters to modern tastes with Panini and lattes. Then again, it serves treacle-sponge pudding…

And so it goes. In other words, it’s a pretty mainstream British café, where the Panini and latte have become as quintessentially British as Chicken Korma.

The main thing about the Oystercatchers Café is that it’s been done with love, care and passion.  It’s pretty obvious from the greetings that people get as they walk in the door that, as well as attracting visitors who are just passing through, this place is popular with the locals. In fact, if there’s one thing that makes it instantly stick in my head, it’s that feeling of community. Of being in and contributing to the community, not something you get in places that cater exclusively to the tourist trade.

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Brick Lane Coffee

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I was going to start by describing Brick Lane Coffee as “funky”. Or maybe “quirky”. Or something like that. But that’s lazy and unhelpful shorthand. Brick Lane Coffee is very much its own place. My love-hate relationship with it started with an argument over misplaced apostrophes on Twitter and went up/downhill from there.

I love the attitude; I love the décor and the feel of the place. I even love the loud music, which is rare. So that’s the love part. But, but, my espresso was served in a paper cup! A paper cup, I tell you. Hang on a second while I go bash my head against a wall… Okay, that’s better. Oh wait, the room’s started spinning. I’d better sit down.

Espresso in a paper cup? Noooooooo. And it’s good espresso too, the sort that deserves a proper cup. On the plus side, I was told that I could have a discount if I brought my own cup next time. I’ll let you know how that goes…

August 2016: Brick Lane Coffee has closed its doors for the last time…

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Coffee Bean Central

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I must confess to not knowing Plymouth at all. I’ve only visited a handful of times, and only then for basketball games, with my knowledge of Plymouth stretching as far as the drive from the A38 to the Plymouth Pavilions. So it was with some trepidation that I sought out Coffee Bean Central and, as I walked through the town centre, past Starbucks and Café Nero, it wasn’t looking good.

But then, across the road from Nero, there was Coffee Bean Central. You know you are onto a good thing when you walk through the door and feel right at home. Plymouth, you have a gem here!  It’s only been open a few months, but it has the makings of a classic: bright, airy, spacious, and with a lovely upstairs area which puts the “lounge” into coffee lounge. As you can tell, I was sold!

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