Category Archives: United Kingdom

Coffee Spots in the United Kingdom

Shrewsbury Coffeehouse

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An exceptional Has Bean espresso in a classic white cup from the Shrewsbury Coffee HouseClose enough to Shrewsbury Station to be worth running out for a quick visit when changing trains, the Shrewsbury Coffeehouse is a delightful place. In fact, it’s so delightful, it’s worth making sure you have about an hour between trains so you can pay it a proper visit!

Many things mark the Shrewsbury Coffeehouse as something special, starting with the friendly, welcoming staff who add so much to the atmosphere. Then there’s the space itself, bright and airy, with lots of seating options and a cosy basement for those winter days when you just want to spend all snuggling up with a cup of coffee.

Which brings me to the main point of a coffeehouse, the coffee. The Shrewsbury Coffeehouse serves Has Bean. Oh well, I thought to myself, can’t have everything. Except… I really liked the Shrewsbury Coffeehouse’s house blend. That was two Has Bean espressos I liked in the space of a week! What’s the world coming to? As well as the house blend, the Shrewsbury Coffeehouse does single origin Sundays, showcasing Has Bean’s extensive range.

After all that, I had to have a slice of cake to calm me down. And excellent cake it was too!

January 2016: the talented Cherie Jerrard is displaying some of her excellent cafe illustrations at the Shrewsbury Coffeehouse until the end of February. Pop along and have a look if you can, or take a look at my pictures at the end of the gallery. You can also read a little piece that Cherie wrote about the exhibition and see what I made of it in the Saturday Supplement.

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Coffee Fix

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The Coffee Fix logo on the front window.It was a day for finding great coffee in unexpected places. Having run into About Coffee in Colne that morning, I called in on Coffee Fix in Gatley on the way back that afternoon. Neither were chance encounters, having come across both on twitter, but neither location immediately springs to mind when thinking of where to find excellent coffee.

A friendly, neighbourhood café with top-notch coffee (roasted by James of Coffee Circle in Manchester), excellent cakes, lovely breakfast and lunch menus (all made on the premises), Coffee Fix has something for everyone, breaking my rule that you should do one thing and do it well. Instead, Coffee Fix does everything and does it to an excellent standard, especially the coffee, which is as good as anywhere I’ve been in a year of Coffee Spotting. Coffee Fix offers a full range of espresso and filter coffee, including V60, Aeropress and cafetiere.

In fact, the only thing I can think off that would improve it (in my opinion) is a move about 150 miles south so I don’t have such a long drive when I want to visit.

Or I could move nearer to Manchester… It’s a tempting thought!

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About Coffee

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About Coffee's pleasing exterior on Church StreetColne is a Lancashire mill town surrounded by beautiful countryside. That much I knew from visiting five years ago. It also has a surprising amount of history, which I didn’t know about, and, as I discovered on my recent trip, it’s got a cracking coffee shop, About Coffee.

You might ask what was I doing in far-off Colne… Well, I might have been there to hike in the amazing hills, but actually I was wearing my other hat (the one I use to make the money I need to zip around the country, hunting down Coffee Spots) and was there for a business meeting. I’d deliberately arrived an hour early, which just enough time to nip into About Coffee, which I’d heard about on twitter.

As it turned out, it was an hour well spent. About Coffee is a delightful café as well as a coffee and tea merchant. It’s got a great range of coffee (and tea), lovely homemade cakes, friendly staff and a toilet in the basement that you have to go out of the shop, down some steps and through what looks like a blast door to get to. I ask you, what more could you want?

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The Barista’s, Chester

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The logo of The Barista's, ChesterI’d describe The Barista’s in Chester (the apostrophe leaving me asking “the Barista’s what?”) as an old-fashioned coffee shop (“old-fashioned” meaning a mere 10 years ago!). Set in the bottom of an old building on Chester’s historic Watergate Street, it’s a lovely, relaxing place, with bare stone and brick walls belying the age of building (it dates from the 17th century, if not earlier).

As a venue, it’s worth it just for the experience, especially if, like me, you appreciate old buildings. There are also a couple of tables outside on the pavement; on a sunny day, I can see sitting outside being a great option, the pedestrianised Watergate Street making a very pleasant backdrop.

The Barista’s serves Has Bean, so you know that the coffee’s going to be more than just run-of-the-mill. In fact, The Barista’s achieved the unique distinction of serving me a Has Bean espresso which I drank without pulling a face! There is, as they say, a first time for everything!

Add to that a fairly typical coffee shop range of cake, sandwiches, Panini, soup and a less-than-typical selection of flatbreads and you have a credible alternative to the coffee chains in the heart of Chester.

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Bold Street Coffee

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The exterior of Bold Street Coffee, proudly proclaiming itself, on Bold Street, LiverpoolGiven the somewhat trying day I’d had, there was something reassuring about stepping into Liverpool’s Bold Street Coffee. It’s not what I’d call relaxing (think loud and busy) or even particularly comfortable (think plastic chairs over sofas), but it was indisputably my kind of place. One end of the counter was buckling under the weight of the interesting cakes, the other held an Aeropress brew bar, while in the middle, the bright red La Marzocco made a certain statement…

There’s also something about the way that the staff carry themselves which makes a statement: we know coffee, we’re passionate about coffee. I could write an essay on what it is that distinguishes (at a glance) those staff who have this passion and knowledge from those who are merely competent but indifferent and still not capture it. However, whatever it is, the two guys in Bold Street had it.

If tea is more your thing, then you’re in luck, since Bold Street carries a range of Waterloo Teas. If you’re looking for something more substantial than cake, then your luck’s also in, since Bold Street has decent breakfast (until 12:00, 16:00 at weekends) and lunch (12:00 until 16:00) menus too.

May 2018: Some bad news and some good news. Bold Street Coffee was forced to leave its eponymous home in January, although there’s currently a pop-up at Santa Maluco on Castle Street. The good news, however, is that Bold Street Coffee has a chanced to get back to where it belongs, in its original home at 89 Bold Street, but this time in an expanded space! To do this, Bold Street Coffee needs to raise £30,000 through its Kickstarter campaign, which runs until 27th June. There are some awesome rewards, so get pledging now!

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Ground Coffee, Hove

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An A-board outside Ground Coffee, Hove saying Hello, Bonjour, Ciao, Hallo, Guten Tag, Dia Duit, Hola, G'DayGround Coffee Houses is a chain of precisely two. Business partners Matthew and Rick founded the original in Kemp Town, Brighton, four years ago, going on to open this branch on Church Road, Hove, two years later.

Ground appears to believe in keeping things simple with a straightforward layout and minimal décor (particularly in contrast to somewhere such as The Marwood), perhaps so that it doesn’t distract from the coffee, which seems to be the focus. It’s a busy place with a bustling, convivial atmosphere, background music adding to the hum of conversation. If coffee’s not your thing, there’s loose-leaf tea as well as sandwiches and cake.

Ground gets its house blend from Union Hand-roasted, a particular favourite of mine, while taking espresso and filter beans from regularly rotating guest roasters. A fairly regular guest is one of my favourite local small batch roasters, Horsham Coffee Roaster. While I was there, Ground had an impressive number of its offerings squirreled away under the counter. Bradley, the man behind Horsham Coffee Roaster, was most insistent that I paid Ground a visit once he knew that I’d be going to Hove. How could I refuse…?

December 2015: I’ve learnt that the Hove branch has now closed.

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The Marwood

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The Marwood, tucked away in an alley of Ship Street, BrightonRight in the heart of Brighton’s Lanes, tucked away in a corner next to Café Coho, is The Marwood. It is perhaps the most Brighton-like of all Brighton’s many and varied coffee shops. To call it quirky would be an understatement: The Marwood is quite possibly the most eclectic place I have visited since I started the Coffee Spot.

I first ran across it as a showcase for Google Maps new “walk-through” feature. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to go there! Of course, quirky can be a double-edged sword: if quirky is used as a gimmick, then it rapidly gets stale. Similarly, quirky without good coffee wouldn’t amount to much either.

Fortunately, The Marwood puts its money where its mouth is, with a classic espresso from Southampton roasters, Mozzo. There’s no third-wave experimentation here, no pour-overs or fancy preparation methods. In fact, the coffee is probably the most straightforward aspect of the whole place. Although it describes itself as a coffee house, The Marwood also does food and serves wine, spirits and bottled beer, as well as offering a variety of different spaces in which to hang out.

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Café Mila

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The downstairs at Cafe Mila, bathed in sunlight.Café Mila, just off Godalming’s historic High Street, is a wonderful spot. I’m embarrassed to confess that it’s taken me so long to discover it: after all, from my house it’s only a couple of hours’ stroll away across the Surrey hills, then down along the River Wey (or 10 minutes by train if you’re in a hurry). Nor can I plead ignorance; my friends in the area have been telling me to go there for a while now.

Café Mila will be celebrating its second birthday in October. Set up by South-African Steve and his wife Jane, what makes it so special is the combination of its setting (a courtyard just off the High Street) and the warm, welcoming atmosphere created by Steve and his cheerful staff. You can usually find Steve on the premises and I was also fortunate enough to meet Jane.

It helps that the coffee is good, while the cakes and food, all baked/made on the premises, are excellent. I liked it so much that I visited twice, once with a friend for Sunday brunch (which was excellent) and then again one afternoon the following week for a more extended visit.

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Bean About Town, Kentish Town

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A latte, complete with latte art by Rory, in a Bean About Town takeaway cup from the Kentish Town cart.For a while now, I’ve been describing Bean About Town’s Coffee Van at the Real Food Market at London’s South Bank Centre as my favourite coffee cart/van/barrow/stall. While the coffee is excellent and I like Bean About Town in general, an awful lot of this has to do with Claire, the French barista who runs the South Bank van on Fridays and at the weekend. For the rest of the week, Claire can be found at Bean About Town’s coffee barrow at Kentish Town. Or so I was told.

This is the story of how I made the long, long journey to Kentish town (four stops on the Northern Line, Charing Cross Branch, heading north from Euston) only to find that Claire had grown a beard and changed her name to Rory… Either that or I’d missed her shift by a couple of hours… I’ll let you decide…

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Workhouse Coffee, King Street

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Workhouse Coffee Company on the ground floor of the George Hotel in ReadingYou know how it goes. You go to a coffee shop, you love it; you go to another branch, you don’t like it. It’s always a danger and so it was with the King Street branch of Workhouse Coffee. I think I’d been subconsciously avoiding it, having visited the original Workhouse Coffee on Oxford Road in West Reading at the start of the year. That was a small, intimate and lovely place to drink coffee and I worried that the much bigger King Street, in the centre of Reading, wouldn’t live up to my high expectations.

My fears were, of course, groundless: if anything, King Street is even better. From the moment I stepped inside, I loved the place. Very different from Oxford Road, it’s still small enough to be intimate, while its bustle adds a whole new dimension. How I longed for a place like this when I was a regular visitor to Reading 10 years ago!

As well as running the two coffee shops, Workhouse roasts its own beans, offering (while I was there) a single origin, two blends and a decaf as espresso and all its beans as pour-over fitler or for sale (beans or ground).

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