Category Archives: Laptop Friendly

Coffee Spots with power, free wifi and/or a tolerant attitude to us laptop users.

Flat Caps Coffee

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Perhaps the nicest cup of filter coffee I've ever had from Flat Caps Coffee in Newcastle, served with the filter in place.Flat Caps Coffee is arguably the hardest-to-find place in my Coffee Spot career. On the other hand, since everyone I asked said that I had to go there, clearly it couldn’t be that hard to find… So, undaunted, I set out with nothing more than my nose for coffee and Google Maps to guide me. This proved to be one of those rare occasions when Google Maps won out…

Flat Caps is downstairs under a gift shop, with the smallest sign in the world providing the only external indication of its existence. It’s a fair bet that Flat Caps doesn’t pick up much passing trade, so its popularity must be down to word of mouth and reputation, which tells me that it must be pretty good. Now I’ve been there, I can tell you that it’s excellent.

Run by Joe, a Finalist in this year’s UK Barista Championships, Flat Caps serves amazing coffee in relaxing, laid-back surroundings. Big tables are mixed with intimate niches, while the blue & white tiled floor, low ceiling, green walls and exposed brickwork go surprisingly well together (although it’s since been redecorated). As a space in which to drink coffee, it’s every bit as good as the coffee itself.

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Didn’t You Do Well

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Didn't You Do Well's A-board outside the coffee shop on Park RowYou could argue that Bristol is in the middle of a golden age of coffee, putting it up there with the likes of Edinburgh. In the last nine months, four top-notch coffee shops, as good as any in the country, have opened. Each offers something different, but all share a passion for great coffee. Three of them, Wild at Heart, Small Street Espresso and Full Court Press, form a triangle in the centre of the old medieval city. Didn’t You Do Well is an outpost on Park Row, offering a specialist alternative to the grand-daddy of the Bristol coffee scene, the Boston Tea Party, just around the corner on Park Street.

Didn’t You Do Well nails its colours firmly to the speciality coffee mast with some unusual brewing technology (at least for the UK). It offers a choice of beans and a fairly severe outlook on how you take your coffee. This goes with a clean, uncluttered look which seems to minimise any distraction from the coffee itself. While others, such as Wild at Heart, might go for quirky surroundings, the quirkiness at Didn’t You Do Well stops with the name: everything else is focused squarely on the coffee!

March 2015: Sad news… Didn’t You Do Well closed at the end of the month after two years of bringing great coffee to Bristol. Good luck to Will and Ally in whatever they do next.

October 2015: Will is now working full-time as a barista in Full Court Press.

You can read more of my thoughts after the gallery.

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Pink Lane Coffee

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One of the intimate nooks in Pink Lane Coffee, appropriately enough painted pink...Pink Lane Coffee is, appropriately enough, on Pink Lane, handily located just across the road from Newcastle’s Central Station. Unfortunately, I was coming from the other direction and almost missed it. From the outside, it looks unpromising, tucked away on the ground floor of the Pink Lane Business Centre. If I’m honest, it doesn’t look much like a coffee shop, with the door set back from the lane, a rather unpromising, cramped little place. However, a bit like the Tardis, it’s a lot bigger on the inside. And much nicer.

When you do venture across the threshold, you’ll find a wonderful coffee shop, with something for everyone. The beans were from London’s Union Hand-Roasted and Bath’s Round Hill and the resulting coffee is lovely (although Pink Lane now roasts in-house under its Colour Coffee Company brand). As a place to sit and drink it, Pink Lane stands comparison to anywhere I’ve been. There’s a bench outside, while inside you’ll find comfy sofas, stools at the counter, intimate nooks, plus the usual mix of small and big tables. Throw in a generous supply of power outlets and free wifi and you have somewhere I could happily spend an entire day… In fact, it was so welcoming that I had to throw myself out!

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True Grounds

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One of the many fine tables in True Grounds, with some of Maria Marx's paintings hanging on the wall above it.Some places I’m sold on when I walk in the door. Others take a little while to grow on me. Some never do and so don’t make it into the Coffee Spot. It’s fair to say that I was sold on True Grounds from the moment I saw it from across the street. I’m not sure why, but I’ve learnt over the years to trust my Coffee Spot radar: it rarely lets me down. So it was with True Grounds.

True Grounds is a neighbourhood coffee shop par excellence. It’s the sort of neighbourhood coffee shop that makes you want to move into the neighbourhood. It might be off the beaten track up in Somerville, north of Boston, but I’m glad that I went out of my way to pay it a visit. What makes it for me is the space, a bright, sunny, warm and welcoming place to drink my coffee, which was, by the way, excellent.

I might have been swayed by the bright, sunny day, but whatever it was, True Grounds made a lasting impression on me!

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Store Street Espresso

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The counter at Store Street Espresso, looking back towards the front window.Store Street Espresso, unsurprisingly located on Store Street, is a wonderful place. It’s been open for about 2½ years and I’ve been aware of it for some time, having walked past several times and given it admiring glances. However, until recently, I’d never had the opportunity to go in. Fortunately for me, Store Street Espresso more than lived up to its external promise.

I like pretty much everything about Store Street, from the layout of the store, through the friendly and knowledgeable staff, right up to the coffee and cake. It’s a place that’s not afraid to experiment, with regularly-rotating guest coffees (including European and American roasters) supplementing the regular offerings from Square Mile. At the same time, it stays true to its core values of serving good food and excellent coffee. It has a pretty decent filter coffee and a mean slice of toast, both of which are pretty rare. That it’s open until seven o’clock in the evening is a huge bonus.

My only regret is that I didn’t know about Store Street when I was a regular visitor to the British Museum, otherwise I would have spent a lot more time in it back then.

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Café Plume

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Cafe Plume on Avenue Mont-Royal OuestIt’s fair to say that I was blown away by the coffee scene in Montréal. I came to it armed with precisely zero foreknowledge and left deeply impressed with the range and quality of the coffee spots dotted around the city. Café Plume is another of the new crop of places which have bloomed in the last 18 months or so. It was recommended to me by Marie- Ève of the Pikolo Espresso Bar and her recommendation proved to be spot on.

Café Plume is best described as a neighbour café. Located on the eastern edge of the plateau area of Montréal, opposite Parc Jeanne-Mance, it’s a laid-back, relaxed and friendly place with coffee that’s every bit as good as its setting. Throw in a generous provision of power outlets and free wifi and you have the sort of place that makes you want to move in next door (or, in the case of Café Plume, move into one of the flats above the shop). Or maybe just move into Plume itself! Continue reading →

Boston Tea Party, Worcester

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The model aeroplane at the Worcester branch of the Boston Tea Party.Regular readers will know of my love affair with the Boston Tea Party, the coffee shop chain which started off in Park Street, Bristol, and is steadily spreading north, east and south. That’s not to say that I like all the branches, but the ones I don’t tend to be the exception rather than the rule. So, when I found myself in Worcester on a rainy Saturday afternoon with an hour or so to kill, I made a bee-line for the Boston Tea Party on Broad Street.

Like its siblings, the Worcester BTP is instantly recognisable as a BTP, but sufficiently different to be its own place. Also, like every one I’ve been to except the Cheltenham Road branch, it’s split over two floors. And this one has its own aeroplane! With lots of windows, plenty of space and a great layout, this is a relaxing place to drink good coffee with friendly, helpful staff, which is all I’m really looking for.

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Coffee Aroma

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A carafe of coffee and a bright red cup from Coffee Aroma, Lincoln.I have to say that as I walked through the centre of Lincoln, I was not that hopeful. I’d heard great things about Coffee Aroma, but as I looked about me it didn’t seem to be the sort of place where I was going to find top-notch coffee: I really should have had more faith. If anything, Coffee Aroma was undersold.

That said, Coffee Aroma takes no prisoners. It knows what it wants to do and it does it without compromise. In this respect, the attitude reminds me of London’s Street Coffee. For example, the espresso comes with a small bottle of sparkling water as default, all tastefully arranged on a bespoke wooden tray. This is nice, but some might baulk at the £3 price tag that this attracts. Similarly, you want decaf? Not in Coffee Aroma you don’t (the explanation given to me was that the staff can’t find a decaf bean they like).

If you can accept these restrictions, then you’ll find that Coffee Aroma serves some very good coffee in lovely surroundings, especially upstairs, which I loved. The staff were also very friendly and engaging, as well as being passionate about their coffee.

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Caffé Roma

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A mirror from the wall of Caffe Roma, New York City, with the slogan "Caffe Roma, Gelatic & Spumoni"Regular readers will know that I have a soft spot for old-fashioned Italian cafes and, in that respect, Caffé Roma fits the bill. It’s located firmly in the heart of New York’s Little Italy on the corner of Broome and Mulberry Streets. I started coming here a couple of years ago, drawn in by the offer of free wifi, but it soon became a favourite in its own right. The coffee is good, but the killer is the wonderful array of cakes.

Caffé Roma boasts the best cannoli in New York and the rest of the offerings are pretty good too. Everything is baked on the premises and if you can’t eat it all, you can take it away with you, courtesy of a massive takeaway counter…

Caffé Roma is a lovely place, established in 1891, with much of it looking as if it dates from that era, including the tiled floor. It’s the sort of place where I could happily sit for hours (helped by the long opening hours!). Little Italy has a bit of a reputation as a tourist trap, but Caffé Roma feels more genuine to me and seems very popular with both locals and tourists.

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Foxcroft & Ginger

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Foxcroft & Ginger's rhubarb and custard muffin, with a slice removed to reveal the liquid custard in the centre.What’s there not to like about Foxcroft & Ginger? I was introduced to it by a friend on Twitter and, although it took me a little while, it’s now become a firm favourite. The storefront, on Berwick Street in Soho, is, I confess, one I could easily walk past (and it’s not often that my café radar lets me down) and I find the upstairs a little chaotic. However, downstairs in the basement is the real deal.

Regular readers might not know about my fondness for basements, largely because there aren’t that many cafés with decent basements. It can best be described as “unfinished”, with bare walls and exposed power conduits and air conditioning ducts. It’s “L” shaped with a collection of oddly-shaped tables around the walls. In fact, nothing much matches in Foxcroft & Ginger, which is one of its many charms.

The coffee, as one might expect, is very good, with espresso-based drinks supplemented by V60, cafetiere and Aeropress options and with beans from Has Bean and Caravan. However, best of all are the cakes, and, specifically, the muffins, which might be the best in the whole wide world, all freshly baked on site.

September 2016: I’ve heard on the grapevine that Foxcroft & Ginger’s Soho branch has closed, although there’s no official word as to why… Very sad news.

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