Welcome to the penultimate Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2013, the Special Award, which was won in 2012 by Bar des Arts. This is a special award for those Coffee Spots which don’t quite fit into the other categories, but which nonetheless I absolutely love… It’s also a chance for me to recognise and reward those wonderful Coffee Spots that I come across during the year and which mean something special to me.
Welcome to the next Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2013, the “Most Passionate About Coffee” Award, which was won in 2012 by Brew Lab. For me, this is one of the most important awards, which is why I’ve left it to the last day.
It’s not just about the coffee, it’s also about people who love and care about coffee. Everyone who I’ve covered in the Coffee Spot is passionate about coffee and one of the great things is how much love there is out there, both for the coffee and for those who make it. However, those shortlisted for this award stand out from the crowd.
Continuing the food theme, we have another new Coffee Spot Award for 2013, the “Best Cheese Toastie” Award. This might be a one-off: cheese toasties are not really high on my list of culinary delights. On the other hand, having had some quite lovely cheese toasties this year, maybe I should be eating more of them…
This all started because I went to Newcastle’s 9Bar, a place that boasted the “world’s best cheese toastie”. Well, if you’re going to make that sort of claim, then there needs to be an award to go with it! However, given my lack of cheese toastie eating, it’s a fairly short shortlist…
Continuing the food theme, the next Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2013 is the “Best Breakfast”, another new Award this year. Along with cake, breakfast has a special place in my heart and I always intended to cover breakfast places on the Coffee Spot. The only slight snag is that I rarely get up and out of the house early enough to get to places before they stop serving breakfast!
Largely because of this, it wasn’t until this year that I started the Saturday Spot (part of the Saturday Supplement) specifically so that I could write about Coffee Spots where the coffee wasn’t up to much, but where the breakfasts were to die for! The shortlisted places this year are a mixture of Saturday Spots and Coffee Spots which also do great breakfasts.
Welcome to the next Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2013, the “Best Cake” Award, which was won in 2012 by Bea’s of Bloomsbury. Despite what it says on the tag line, the Coffee Spot’s not all about the coffee. After all, what would a cup of coffee be without a decent slice of cake to go with it? So, cake plays a major part in the Coffee Spot and this Award celebrates the Coffee Spots which excel in the cake department.
This is another of my favourite Awards and while I didn’t visit as many dedicate cake spots this year, I was treated to some absolutely fantastic cake experiences along the way.
Another new Award for this year is the “Best Physical Space” Award. I’m not sure why I didn’t have this award last year since this is one of the most important things for me, how a Coffee Spot looks and feels. It’s as much about atmosphere, layout and overall feel as it is about the coffee.
This award celebrates those Coffee Spots in which there’s a pure joy in just sitting there, soaking it all in. It’s another where I could have made three or four different shortlists, all with worthy winners. However, I have managed to whittle it down to just a single list for this year’s Award.
Coffee Spots come in all shapes and sizes, but for some reason I have a real soft spot for small Coffee Spots. Last year the Award was won, somewhat controversially, by Exeter’s Exploding Bakery (controversial since I went by the floor area dedicated to coffee rather than the size of the whole place, which included an open-plan kitchen).
This year I have once again been blessed by some very small Coffee Spots serving some very fine coffee. As in 2012, this Award is entirely subjective: no Coffee Spots were measured during the judging process!
Another new Award for this year is the “Best Saturday Supplement” Award. This might have something to do with there not being any Saturday Supplements last year on account of my not having had the idea yet… The Saturday Supplement is a place where I can write about coffee, coffee-related events and places which I liked but which didn’t really fit into the category of a Coffee Spot. This Award recognises the best of this year’s Saturday Supplements.
Just so we’re clear on this, the Award is not about my writing (that would be far too self-serving). It’s about the actual subjects that I’m writing about, which include coffee festivals, magazines and coffee roasters, which makes the comparison a little tricky, but that’s my problem!
I present the shortlist for one of my favourite Coffee Spot Awards, that of “Happiest Staff”. Last year it was won by Café Boscanova and this year’s shortlist is particular strong. I was blessed as I visited numerous places with some very happy staff this year. This is the one award where I could have filled the shortlist multiple times over.
In my opinion, staff are probably the most over-looked part of any Coffee Spot. Good staff can make a place and bad staff, no matter how great the coffee and wonderful the location, can kill a place. Everywhere that features in the Coffee Spot has great staff, but these were exceptional, with some infectiously happy staff.
You can see the shortlist after the gallery.
There are six Coffee Spots on the shortlist this year, listed in order of publication, although there were so many great places that I’ve included another five “special mentions” at the end.
Despite the name, Manchester’s North Tea Power serves some excellent coffee as well as having some of the happiest staff I’ve come across. The tone is set by the owners, Jane and Wayne, but seems infectious across all of the staff, one of who I spied dancing behind the counter in a quieter moment. This all rubs off on the overall atmosphere in North Tea Power, helping to make it a wonderful place.
I was predisposed to like Café Olimpico in Montréal for a host of reasons, including the excellent coffee and neighbourhood bar feel. However, when the two baristas started singing along to classics such as ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down” I was sold. The highlight was their accompanying Sister Sledge singing “Good Times”.
Café Olimpico is also shortlisted for the “Best Neighbourhood Coffee Spot” Award.
Four Corners opened its doors on Lower Marsh behind London’s Waterloo Station earlier this year. It’s a lovely place, but one of the things that made it stand out for me was the happiness of the staff, something that’s all the more impressive given how little time they’d been open when I visited.
The staff at The Fields Beneath underneath Kentish Town West station made me feel right at home. Nothing was too much trouble for Jess, the barista, and Vanessa, chief cake tester, and that was before they knew who I was 🙂
The Shrewsbury Coffeehouse is another of those Coffee Spots that could have been shortlisted for any number of awards. As it is, it’s also in the running for the “Best Espresso” Award. However, the thing that struck me the most was just how happy the staff were. I’d only meant to stop for a bite of lunch and ended up staying for more coffee and a slice of most excellent cake.
White Mulberries in St Katherine Dock is generally-speaking one of the happiest places I have been. Owners Peyman and Rana rival North Tea Power’s Wayne and Jane in the happiest owners stakes. White Mulberries is also on the shortlist for the Coffee Spot’s Special Award.
A special mention needs to go to the following: Boston Tea Party, Worcester; @the Well on Cheltenham Road, Bristol; Doctor Espresso Caffetteria opposite Putney Bridge Station; Workhouse Coffee, King Street in the heart of Reading and Taylor Street Baristas, Mayfair.
And the winner is White Mulberries!
Runners-up: North Tea Power, Café Olimpico
You can find all 20 of the 2013 Coffee Spot Awards here.
If you liked this post, please let me know by clicking the “Like” button. If you have a WordPress account and you don’t mind everyone knowing that you liked this post, you can use the “Like this” button right at the bottom instead. [bawlu_buttons]
Don ‘t forget that you can share this post with your friends using the drop-down “Share” menu below.
First up today, the 2013 Coffee Spot Award shortlist for “Best Coffee Bean Retailer”. Although the Coffee Spot is mostly about places to have coffee, I drink the majority of my coffee at home, so those wonderful people who provide me with my coffee beans need a mention. The problem is, I’m very loyal when it comes to my coffee beans, so I have a tendency to stick with the tried and trusted few, which is in complete contrast to my café visiting habits. I used to be loyal there too, but since starting the Coffee Spot I hardly ever go back to places, even if I love them!
Anyway, since I’m still getting most of my beans from the same two places I got them last year, I’m going to cheat just this once and put them on the shortlist as well!
1
2
3
4
5
6
