Category Archives: Saturday Supplement

A Saturday Supplement is any post that’s not a Coffee Spot

Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe

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Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe sign hangs proudly over the sidewalk on Columbus AvenueCharlie’s Sandwich Shoppe is my go-to breakfast place in Boston. Although my first visit was in 2003, I’ve only been a regular since 2011 (if visiting at least once during my annual trip to Boston makes me a regular that is!), which is when I started staying in Boston’s South End. Charlie’s is the quintessential family-run American diner, although it’s now in the hands of local chef, Evan Deluty. It’s so much a fixture of the neighbourhood that it’s even got its own Wikipedia page!

To the detriment of my waist-line, I’ve always been a fan of American breakfasts: fluffy, buttermilk griddle cakes, smothered in maple syrup; a plate full of eggs, fried potatoes with a couple of slices of toast; there are reasons why I put on half a stone whenever I go to America.

Charlie’s supplies these in abundance, along with bags of friendly atmosphere. It’s best experienced sitting on a bar-stool at the counter with a mug of coffee and enough food to last you for the day. There you can watch the regulars come and go, read the Boston Globe, or, increasingly these days, browse your smartphone or tablet. Not that Charlie’s has succumbed to the lure of wifi just yet…

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Toi Moi & Café

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Toi, Moi & Cafe | Cafe TorrefacteurToi Moi & Café (“You, me and coffee” for those who don’t speak French) is a micro-roaster with its own café, located conveniently just around the corner from my friend Adam’s apartment, where I was staying in Montréal. It’s the last of the Coffee Spots from the visit I made to Montréal back in March and rounds off an excellent visit. I came to Montréal with no expectations and left having found a wonderful coffee scene, with a wide variety of places.

Toi Moi & Café doesn’t fit the bill of the third-wave coffee shop: as well as serving coffee, which it roasts itself, it’s also an excellent breakfast, lunch and dinner spot in a residential part of Montréal. And it has lots of cake. In short, it does pretty much everything, and, being around the corner from Adam’s, I found myself a fairly regular visitor, heading there for both breakfast and lunch, as well as coffee and cake!

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Coffee Tasting at Bar des Arts

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Bar des Arts shiny new brew bar, complete with ceramic filters.On Monday I was lucky enough to be invited along to a coffee tasting at my favourite Guildford Coffee Spot, Bar des Arts. I’ve always liked the ambience at Bar des Arts, but Sara, the owner, wants to take the coffee up to the next level. To this end she invited local roaster, Bradley, from Horsham Coffee Roaster, to come along with some samples of his blends and single origin beans. I was asked pop down to help her and one of the baristas, Jon, to try them out!

Note that strictly speaking this wasn’t a cupping; we weren’t taste-testing lots of coffee, just trying a few of Bradley’s samples (three pour-overs and two espresso blends) to see how they shaped up. We were also trying out Bar des Arts new brew bar, with its ceramic filters, for the first time. Finally, we ambushed a few unsuspecting regular customers and got their opinions too!

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Look Mum No Hands South Bank Pop-up

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An espresso in one of the lovely Look Mum No Hands mugs. Sadly if you want one of these for real, you'll need to go to the Old Street store, not the pop-up on the South Bank.In another new venture for the Saturday Supplement, I present the first ever Saturday Short. Saturday Shorts are Coffee Spots in their own right, but for which I can’t justify a full write-up.

This first Saturday Short comes courtesy of Look Mum No Hands!, something of a legend on the London coffee scene, if only for its interesting name (it’s up there with Bristol’s Didn’t You Do Well in those stakes). I’ve long wanted to try it out, but have never had the time/reason/excuse.

So, imagine my surprise and delight when, on a whim, I decided to walk across the Hungerford Bridge (which connects Waterloo and Charing Cross Stations) on the Parliament rather than the St Paul’s side.  Cutting across to the other side of the bridge I spotted an interesting-looking coffee stall nestling under the bridge itself… And the rest, as they say, is history…

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Small St Espresso: Update

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The exterior view of Small St Espresso on a rainy December day in BristolIn another new development for the Coffee Spot, today’s Saturday Supplement is an Update Spot. This is where I go back to an existing Coffee Spot to see what’s changed. Now, of course, I could just update the original post, but chances are, no-one would notice. Or I could re-post the whole thing, which I feel would be cheating. Hence the Coffee Spot Update.

The subject of the first ever Update Spot is Bristol’s Small St Espresso. When I made my first visit back in December 2012, it had only been open for a few days. Things were still bedding down, and changes were promised, so I was keen to see how things had shaped up in the last four months.

April 2017: I’ve been at it again and there’s a new Coffee Spot Update for Small St Espresso, which now has more seating in a cosy alcove off the main shop.

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Good Coffee in Paris?

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Un Cafe at the legendary Cafe de FloreI worry when I hear people say that they can’t find good coffee in Paris, since I’ve never had a problem in that respect. After all, Paris has a café (and coffee) culture that in many ways long predates that of the UK or the US. What I suspect I’m hearing is “I can’t find coffee that I like” or “I can’t find the coffee that I’m used to”. The simple fact is “coffee I like/am used to” isn’t necessarily synonymous with “good coffee”.

So, I’m going to use this Saturday Supplement to try something new for the Coffee Spot, a discussion piece, looking at the coffee scene in Paris as a matter of taste and perspective. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that while you can get good coffee in Paris, you can also get bad coffee, often shockingly bad coffee. However, Paris has a wide and varied coffee scene, from the little bars with an espresso machine, through the bistros and pavement cafés all the way to the grand cafés of the Left Bank and the upmarket Salons de Thé. And, recently added to the mix, third-wave coffee.

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Caffé Culture Show 2013

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Kensington Olympia, the home of the Caffe Culture ShowI was in two minds about whether to write about the Caffé Culture Show since it’s trade only and hence many of you, dear readers, won’t be able to go. On the other hand, I have a sneaking suspicion that many of you are actually café owners, so maybe you can go after all… Anyway, if you are reading this, café owner or not, you will realise that I have decided to write about it after all…

For the uninitiated, which included my good self until about a month ago, the Caffé Culture Show is an annual event for the café trade which was held in the soaring halls of the Kensington Olympia Exhibition Centre. It features suppliers to the café trade, from coffee machine manufacturers through bakers all the way to furniture suppliers.

While none of this is directly aimed at the likes of me, who goes to cafés rather than runs them, it was nonetheless fascinating to see what’s going on in the industry. Compared to the London Coffee Festival, which I’d attended two weeks earlier, it was a much more relaxed affair, with lots and lots of free samples on offer…

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London Coffee Festival 2013: Sunday Roundup

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The London Coffee Festival LogoI can’t believe that it’s already been two weeks since the London Coffee Festival in Brick Lane. How time flies! Well, now that the dust has settled, it’s time to look back on my second visit, which was to the Sunday teatime session. I had intended to be there earlier in the day, but real-life took a hand and put paid to that. And, as regular readers will already know, mornings are not my friend.

If you didn’t manage to make it this year, you really should consider going next year. You’d be wise to book your ticket well in advance though, since pretty much every session this year either sold out or all but sold out before the day itself. I’m very glad I went: not knowing what to expect, I deliberately set my sights low, but ended up being delighted by everything there. The coffee was excellent, the food amazing, the people fantastic and to cap it all, the espresso machines were very, very shiny…

You can catch up with my exploits on my first day there, or read on to find out what I got up to on my last day…

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London Coffee Festival 2013: Friday Revue

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The London Coffee Festival LogoYesterday I went to the London Coffee Festival in Brick Lane, London, the flagship event of UK Coffee Week. Friday was an industry day, with a public session in the evening, followed by the launch party. If you’ve already got your tickets, you can check out some of the things you might want to see when you go. If you are thinking of going, but don’t have a ticket, then it’s too late: the Festival is now sold out! Make sure you go next year instead!

If you are going, I have three tips for you. The first is that there is no cloakroom, so whatever you bring, you will have to wear/carry around with you while you’re there. Since it’s very crowded, best not bring your rucksack unless you absolutely have to! Secondly, do bring some water, since while there’s plenty of coffee to drink, you’ll soon get dehydrated if you don’t have something else to go with it. Finally, everything is served in takeaway cups, so if you hate waste, bring your own!

So, what did I get up to while I was there…?

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London Coffee Festival 2013: Preview

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The London Coffee Festival LogoWelcome to the first of a new line of posts, the Coffee Spot’s Saturday Supplement. These are posts which aren’t about a specific Coffee Spot: instead they’ll be about general subjects such as making coffee, round-ups of Coffee Spots (eg in future, things such as the Coffee Spot Tour of Edinburgh will be posted as Saturday Supplements) or posts on places where the emphasis really isn’t on coffee (these will be diners, cake shops, etc).

However, the first ever Saturday Supplement is also a first in another way: it’s not a write up of somewhere I’ve been. Instead it’s a preview of somewhere I’m going. Normally, I only write about places I’ve been, but in two weeks’ time I’ll be at the London Coffee Festival in Brick Lane in London, the flagship event of UK Coffee Week. Consisting of eight unique festival zones, there’s food, music, art and, of course, coffee!

Since the London Coffee Festival only happens once a year, it seems a little harsh to wait until this time next year before I say anything about it, hence I present the Coffee Spot’s first ever Saturday Supplement, my preview of the London Coffee Festival 2013!

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