Category Archives: Sandwiches

Coffee Spots serving sandwiches and similar options

Boston Tea Party, Exeter

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The Boston Tea Party on Exeter's Queen StreetFrom the sublime to the ridiculous. One my recent South West tour, I went from the Exploding Bakery to the Exeter branch of the Boston Tea Party, just two minutes’ walk down Queens Street. From the outside, it’s not much to look at (although the building is stunning) and when you get in, it doesn’t improve much. The ground floor is cramped, narrow and crowded, especially when the lunchtime queue is almost out of the door. But walk upstairs and you’re into a whole new realm of space and light. In a matter of minutes, I’d gone from somewhere with five chairs and two tables to, well, I’d hate to have to count them, so let’s say somewhere that could seat 100 easily…

I was there to try out the new food menu, having been prompted (ordered?) by the Boston Tea Party’s head of food, Anita Popham, and I wasn’t disappointed. As for the Tea Party itself, it’s like all the branches I’ve been to; each is recognisably a Boston Tea Party, but each is its own unique place. It’ll never surpass Park Street in my affections, but if I lived in Exeter, I’d spend a lot of time there.

You can read more of my thoughts after the gallery.

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Poppy Mae

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An external view of the newly opened Poppy Mae in central BournemouthI’d heard good things about Poppy Mae. Very good things, in fact. So it was with some relief that I managed to track it down in its new location on Richmond Hill in the centre of Bournemouth (thanks to Luke from Café Boscanova for the directions). I was there back in November, two weeks after Poppy Mae had reopened following the move from its old home in Westbourne.

Honestly, I thought I was in love when I had visited Café Boscanova the day before, but now I’m torn. Poppy Mae is lovely, an old insurance office that has been gutted and pretty much left at that, with what looks like a homemade bar for the espresso machine and grinders and a table chucked in the middle of the room. Minimalist might be overstating it.

However, while it might look as if Poppy Mae had been thrown together on an absent-minded weekend, nothing could be further from the truth. Talking to the owner, Matt, the love, care and pure passion that had gone into Poppy Mae was evident from the start, resulting in a wonderful place. It doesn’t hurt that the coffee is excellent too 🙂

SAD NEWS: Poppy Mae was forced to close in mid-January, I believe largely due to factors outside of Matt’s control. It will be greatly missed. The good news is that space has been taken over by South Coast Roast, the self-described radical wing of Cafe Boscanova.

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Razzo Coffee

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A fine Extract Espresso from Razzo Coffee, St Andrew Square, EdinburghYou could be forgiven for walking past Razzo Coffee on St Andrew Square, thinking that it is not for you in your hunt for top-notch coffee. However, you would be mistaken. Razzo is that rarest of things, a specialist coffee shop with a passion for great coffee, but in a tourist-trap setting.

For those who don’t know Edinburgh, St Andrew Square is at the east end of George Street, right in the centre of town. It’s the perfect place for tourists and shoppers alike to take the weight off their feet and enjoy a quick coffee or tea. At first glance, this is not where you’d expect to find excellent coffee, but Paul, the owner, is passionate about his coffee and has gone to great lengths to ensure that his customers get the best.

As well as fine coffee to drink in or takeaway, there’s also tea, a range of sandwiches, Panini, cake and pastries, along with soup for a cold winters’ day. While I was there, there was a steady stream of customers, and, a very good sign, lots of regulars. So, next time you’re down that end of Edinburgh’s centre, don’t just walk past, pop in!

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Bea’s of Bloomsbury St Paul’s

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Having been to Bea’s of Bloomsbury’s original location and spiritual home in Bloomsbury, it was inevitable that I would end up in Bea’s of Bloomsbury’s St Paul’s branch (hereafter referred to as “Bea’s of St Paul’s” to avoid confusion). And so it was that one misty, grey, autumn day, I found myself in the shadow of St Paul’s at One New Change, the home of Bea’s of St Paul’s. Well, it would have been rude not to go in…

If you haven’t already worked out from my previous post that Bea’s is all about the cake, you really haven’t been paying attention. The St Paul’s branch is no different in that respect. Atmosphere-wise, someone described Bea’s of St Paul’s as more posh, but for me, the feeling was more modern. Or perhaps contemporary would be a better word. Bea’s of Bloomsbury has a cosy, old-fashioned  tea-shop feel, where you sit cheek-by-jowl with the cakes, whereas at St Paul’s up on the mezzanine level, you are slightly more detached. The cake tastes just as good though!

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Glutton & Glee

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I must confess to being a bit slow off the mark with Glutton & Glee. It had been open for 18 months before I made my first visit, but I can guarantee it won’t be another 18 months before my next. Tucked away just off the High Street on Tunsgate, it’s somewhere I’ve always been aware of, but somehow I’ve never gotten around to visiting. Definitely my loss.

In many ways, Glutton & Glee is an old-fashioned British Tea Room with a modern coffee shop twist on the top. The bottom line is that it serves delicious cakes from the fantastic Butter & Cream Cakes (which you can find on Guildford’s North Street Market) as well as excellent coffee and (so I’m told by my tea-drinking friends) lovely tea. My approval in that direction stops at admiring the very fine teapots.

Glutton & Glee also does breakfast/brunch, lunch and sandwiches, but in my head it’s really an afternoon coffee and cake place of the sort that Guildford doesn’t really have enough of. Be warned though: it is small and it can be very busy, but at no point did I feel crowded out or cramped.

December 2015: Glutton & Glee changed hands earlier this year and has rebranded as Kalm Kitchen Cafe. You can see what I made of it when I visited in February 2016.
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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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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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Wild & Wood Coffee

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There are places where I prefer the coffee. There are certainly places with more comfortable seating for someone of my height (and with more seating in general). And there are a host of other things I could go on about, but the fact remains that of the handful of cafés in the vicinity of the British Museum that I regularly visit, I find myself drawn back to Wild & Wood far more frequently than one might imagine.

There is something about Wild & Wood that I find very attractive, but I’m not sure I can easily put my finger on what it is. Partly it is the attitude of the place, a no nonsense, uncompromising adherence to its principles. Partly it is the style, which has been well thought out; the use of wood throughout is very appealing, as well as being in keeping with the name.

In the end, more than most of my favourite places, it comes down to a matter of taste. Give Wild & Wood a go and see what you think.

October 2015: Wild & Wood closed at the start of July this year as the whole block that Wild & Wood was in is being redeveloped. The good news is that it re-opened at the end of August in a new location on London Wall! See what I found when I went to visit.

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