Category Archives: Food

What sort of food the Coffee Spot serves

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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Kilimanjaro

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The welcoming exterior of Kilimanjaro on Edinburgh's Nicholson StreetOne of the great things about independent coffee shops is that everyone is keen to recommend other great coffee spots to you, which is how I found out about Kilimanjaro on Nicholson Street in Edinburgh. I was pointed in its direction by Artisan Roast and since you all know what I think about Artisan Roast, a visit was obligatory.

Just as well, since I may have walked straight past Kilimanjaro without a second look. And that would have been a shame, since I’d have missed a great cup of coffee in a lovely coffee shop. To be honest, while I applaud the wave of experimental coffee shops sweeping Edinburgh (and beyond), sometimes I long for a straightforward coffee shop, serving straightforward coffee. So it was a pleasure to find Kilimanjaro, a thriving coffee shop focusing on serving excellent coffee.

Kilimanjaro is average-sized, smaller than the near-by Brew Lab, but considerably bigger than stable-mate Wellington Coffee or Artisan Roast, for example. The bulk of the seating is up front with a narrow spur leading off to the back. The contrast in terms of look and feel with Brew Lab, which I’d just come from, could not be greater.

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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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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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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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Upstairs at Anna’s

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No trip to Conwy is complete without a visit to Anna’s Tea Rooms & Coffee House. Okay, so Conwy’s got one of the best examples of King Edward I’s castles, which is a masterpiece of medieval military architecture, the most complete set of medieval walls in Britain and Plas Mawr, a fine, Elizabethan town house. But, but…, it’s also got Anna’s!

Situated above an outdoor shop on Conwy’s Castle Street, a stone’s throw from the castle itself, Anna’s is a complete gem. For a start, it serves coffee by the cafetiere, with 17 different beans to choose from. Tea drinkers are even better served, with 12 black teas, three fruit teas and nine loose-leaf teas. Then there’s the homemade cakes. And the homemade lunches. And the afternoon teas. And the ice-creams, and desserts, and, and, and…

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