Category Archives: Food

What sort of food the Coffee Spot serves

Flat Caps Coffee Update

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An espresso in a classic white cup, plus a glass of water, on an oval wooden platter, separated by a tea spoon.Flat Caps Coffee, brainchild of the lovely Joe Meagher, is not only one of my favourite coffee shops in Newcastle, but it’s one of my favourites in the whole country. The only problem is that I don’t get to Newcastle very often… However, whenever I’m in town, I make a point of popping in to say hello.

I first wrote about Joe and Flat Caps in April 2013, writing a longer piece after I visited in October that year for Caffeine Magazine. So, what’s changed since then? Well, honestly, not a lot. Joe’s still Joe, Flat Caps is still Flat Caps and the coffee’s still excellent.

However, since I published my Coffee Spot on Flat Caps, Joe has, in the way that coffee shop owners do, redecorated and also started using single-serve Kalita Wave pour-over filters. And every time he sees me, he nags me that the photos on the Coffee Spot are out-of-date…

March 2017: I’ve just learnt that Ridley Place is closing at the end of the month. Sad news, but I understand Joe’s reasons for taking this step. If you’re interested, this is what I wrote about the closing of Ridley Place. The good news is that Flat Caps will continue at Flat Caps Carliol Square and Flat Caps Campus North.

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BLK Coffee

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A carafe of Ethiopian Kayamo coffee roasted by Workshop, served by BLK Coffee, Heaton.Normally, when visiting a Coffee Spot, I do so unannounced, sneaking quietly in, ordering my coffee and sitting by myself, getting a feel for the place. I do this for a number of reasons, one of which is so that I can sneak quietly out again if I don’t like it (rare, but it occasionally happens). My main reason, however, is so my experience is as much as possible that of the average customer who’d just walked in off the street.

With BLK Coffee in Heaton, Newcastle, I knew that this wasn’t going to happen. I’ve known Alison, BLK’s owner/head-barista/chief bottle-washer (delete as appropriate), for a couple of years. What’s more, she’d invited me to BLK’s launch party, which was on the evening of my visit. What that in mind, read on…

BLK is a multi-roaster, with a host of regularly-rotating guests, including, in the opening weeks, London’s Workshop, Bath’s Round Hill Roastery and Berlin’s Five Elephant Coffee. There are two options on espresso and on filter a choice of three single-origin beans through any of four preparation methods: Chemex, V60, Kalita Wave and Aeropress. Finally, there’s tea from Waterloo Tea, Kokoa Collection hot chocolate and plenty of cake.

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Tamper Coffee, Sellers Wheel

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The Tamper Coffee logo painted in black on the whitewashed side of Sellers Wheel. The words "Tamper Coffee Bar" written in a ring around the outline of tamper.For once, I’ve done a chain in the correct order, having first visited the original Tamper Coffee on Westfield Terrace in Sheffield before venturing down the following day to Sellers Wheel on Arundel Street for breakfast. The contrast between the two in terms of size and scope could hardly be greater; Westfield Terrace is a small, cosy, neighbourhood coffee shop, while Sellers Wheel is much larger, with a strong focus on food, although still retaining Westfield Terrace’s intimacy and emphasis on great coffee.

For those who’ve visited Ozone’s roastery/café in London will be familiar with the concept. Meanwhile if you’ve been to Caravan King’s Cross, there’s a certain similarity in look and feel, although Sellers Wheel is much smaller; you could probably fit four of it into Caravan (eight if you stacked them vertically as well).

In some ways, Sellers Wheel (like Caravan) is two-shops-in-one. You enter into a small area, best described as a coffee lounge, and, if you just want coffee, you could always stay here since it makes a great option by itself. Sellers Wheel proper, though, which is where all the food is, is at the back, through a doorway to the left of the counter.

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Marmadukes Café Deli

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A pencil drawing of a large bear with scarf streaming behind it, as it peddles an under-sized bicycle.Marmadukes Café and Deli is tucked away opposite Sheffield’s Catholic Cathedral on Norfolk Row, a lovely, quiet street that makes sitting out in the sun almost compulsory. However, to do so would miss out on an even lovelier interior. Occupying all three floors of a rambling, old house, Marmadukes is a cosy, friendly spot that has something for everyone, each of its five distinct spaces offering something unique. Beware of the maze-like interior though; I went the wrong way at least three times!

The coffee’s pretty good too, with head-barista Alex determined to keep Marmadukes up there with the best in Sheffield and beyond. The mainstay is London’s Workshop, the Cult of Done seasonal espresso front-and-centre on Marmadukes’ new La Marzocco Linear PB. Recent investment in an EK-43 grinder has allowed Marmadukes’ guest roaster, which changes every month, to now be offered on both espresso and filter. During August, it’s Finchley’s Campbell & Syme. Before that it was local roaster, Worksop’s Sundlaug Coffee Co..

However, it’s not just the coffee. Marmadukes has always had excellent food, as good as anywhere in Sheffield, with dedicated breakfast, all-day brunch and lunch menus, plus a stupendous range of cakes, including the house-speciality, cheesecake.

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Greenhood Coffee House

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A specially-commissioned piece of art for Greenhood Coffee House by the very talented Tim Shaw. A hooded archer kneeling on top of a hot water tap shoots arrows through suspended apples and into a target standing on an EK-43 grinder.Something very special is happening out in Beeston, just west of Nottingham. No, I don’t mean the new tram line, although that should be welcomed, particularly since it’ll be easier for visitors to get out to today’s Coffee Spot. Instead I’m referring to the Greenhood Coffee House, which opened at the start of July.

Much of Nottingham’s speciality coffee scene can trace its roots back to The Bean, a Beeston fixture of some renown just around the corner from Greenhood. In this respect, Greenhood’s no different, owner Rory having worked there for several years. However, Rory’s now struck out on his own, opening Greenhood, a speciality coffee shop which is proving as popular with the locals as it is with the connoisseur.

On espresso, there’s a bespoke house-blend from Has Bean on one grinder, while local roasters, Outpost Coffee Roasters, is a permanent fixture on another. There’s even a third dedicated grinder for decaf. These are joined by three filter options, available through Chemex, V60 or Aeropress. Here Has Bean is joined by local roasters such as Sundlaug Coffee Co. and some from further afield, including Berlin’s Five Elephant and Philadelphia’s ReAnimator! Loose-leaf tea is from Waterloo Tea amongst others.

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200 Degrees Coffee Shop

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The award-winning 200 Degrees Coffee Shop in Nottingham, which won the Best Coffee Shop For Out Of Office Working at the 2015 Coffee Stop AwardsI came to Nottingham in 2013 for the Ashes Test Match at Trent Bridge. Back then, a search for good coffee in Nottingham drew a blank. Two years later, I returned, during which time Nottingham had reinvented itself. Leading the way, or so it seems to me, is 200 Degrees, first with its roastery, now with its awesome flagship award-winning café right in the city centre.

“Flagship” is a term that is often misused, but this is a real gem and could easily be a flagship for speciality coffee in Nottinghamshire and perhaps the East Midlands as a whole. Set in the gorgeous surroundings of the Old Flying Horse Inn, it reminds me of The Barista’s, Chester in setting, with its panelled wood and exposed brickwork in the long, low-ceilinged main room. You can also sit outside, where up-turned crates, masquerading as tables, flank either side of the door, watching the trams rumble by.

The coffee, naturally, is roasted in-house at the roastery down by the Trent. On espresso there’s house-blend, guest (blend or single-origin) and decaf, while one of two single-origins is on hand-pour (V60 or Aeropress). You can also buy all the beans to take home with you.

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Street Bean Coffee

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The A-board outside Street Bean Coffee on Seattle's 3rd Avenue, pointing the way inside.Coffee with a conscience, community coffee, social coffee; the list goes on. The idea that a coffee shop can do more than just serve good coffee seems to be taking off, with several social enterprise coffee shops springing up, with some London’s leading society enterprises being featured in Issue 15 of Caffeine Magazine. However, while in Seattle, I was lucky enough to visit Street Bean Coffee, a pioneer in this area which first opened its doors in 2009.

Sitting in the shadow of Seattle’s futuristic Space Needle on 3rd Avenue, Street Bean doesn’t wear its heart on its sleeve. Rather than relying on pricking your conscience, Street Bean is happy to stand up on its own two feet as a coffee shop, something it does very well. Street Bean is a multi-roaster shop, quite a rare thing in the US, offering single-origins and blends on espresso, a wide range of single-origin pour-overs and the obligatory bulk-brew (yet another single-origin option).

By the time you read this, Street Bean will also have starting roasting in the space next door, with initially a 1.5 kg roaster, which will be used for training. Check its website for more on what Street Bean does.

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Quarter Horse Coffee, Birmingham

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The Quarter Horse Coffee logo: a profile of a knight from a chess set, surrounded by an oval with the words "Quarter Horse Coffee" written around the outside.Quarter Horse Coffee opened its Birmingham café/roastery in February 2015, having moved from its original home in Oxford (which is now Peleton Espresso). Located on Bristol Street, a few minutes’ walk south of the centre, it underwent a major remodelling during the summer of 2020, making the most of the enforced shut down due to COVID-19. This saw the roastery, which had been in an open area on the left, enclosed in its own room, while the café on the right expanded its seating, even though the actual space is slightly smaller. This post is all about the café, by the way, while the roastery has its own Meet The Roaster feature.

Bright and spacious, Quarter Horse has a simple, extremely effective décor, being predominantly white, which, along with high ceilings, an uncluttered layout and windows front and back, make it feel even brighter and more spacious than it is. The coffee is all roasted on-site, with the house-blend and a second option on espresso, plus a single-origin on pour-over through the Marco SP9 automated brewers. There’s an all-day light food menu and plenty of cakes, while from Wednesday to Sunday, a full brunch menu is available from 10:00 – 14:00.

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Extracto Coffee Roasters, Prescott

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The Extracto Coffee Roaster logo: a coffee bean held in a metal clamp.Since I’ve been starting my mornings with Extracto’s Eleven of Spades espresso blend, I thought I ought to write up my Coffee Spot on Extracto’s Prescott branch, which was the final stop on my second (and final) day in Portland, Oregon. Extracto is a chain of exactly two, the Prescott branch and the roastery/coffeehouse on Killingsworth, both of which are north of Portland city centre.

Ideally I’d have visited the roastery first, but it’s another 30 minutes further out from the city centre and I’d already done a lot of travelling between coffee shops that day, having started down to the south at Either/Or earlier that morning. Instead, I settled for the closer branch in Prescott village, where Prescott Street meets 15th Avenue in northeast Portland.

Set at the back of a courtyard, a little way off the busy Prescott Street, Extracto is a great little place. All the coffee is roasted over in Killingsworth. There’s a choice of the Eleven of Spades house-blend, a single-origin or decaf on espresso, while on pour-over there were four different beans on offer during my visit. A more extensive range of beans are on sale on a table by the counter.

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Leyas

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A chalkboard inside Leyas on Camden High Street, offering coffee, breakfast, lunch and cakes.I can see why fellow-blogger Matt (aka The Gladieater) likes Leyas so much. It’s a delightful spot on Camden High Street, within sight of the famous Mornington Crescent tube station. It has an interesting layout, with a split level. This could be a nightmare, but Leyas has used this to great effect: there’s a small group of tables on street level as you come in, then steps lead up to the counter and down to a lovely basement. It reminds me of a smaller, cosier version of the Boston Tea Party on Bristol’s Whiteladies Road.

Leyas regularly rotates its roasters, with a different option on espresso, pour-over (V60) and decaf. Sometimes they are all from the same roaster, and at other times it’s a different roaster for each. While I was there in November, Alchemy was doing the honours on espresso, Nude on pour-over and Square Mile on decaf. On my return in June it was Mission Coffee Works and now it’s the turn of Assembly.

However, Leyas isn’t just coffee. There’s an impressive selection of cakes, a massive range of sandwiches and salads, plus extensive breakfast and lunch menus, the food all made in the kitchen at the back.

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