The third shortlist for the 2013 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Best Neighbourhood Coffee Spot” Award. The Award is new for 2013 and celebrates those Coffee Spots which are firmly rooted in, and which serve, their local communities. Unsurprisingly, the shortlist contains some of my favourite Coffee Spots of 2013.
This Award has quite a wide spread, with Coffee Spots from Boston, New York City, Montréal, Newcastle, Gateshead, Gatley (Manchester), London and just down the road from me in Godalming.
The second shortlist for the 2013 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Most Unlikely Place to Find a Coffee Spot” Award. This was won in 2012 by Abriachan Campsite and Café. Finding Coffee Spots in cities such as London, Edinburgh and Bristol is to be expected. However, good Coffee Spots are everywhere, some of them are in very unexpected places, both geographically and in terms of setting.
This Award is very much defined by the nominees on the shortlist. Some of these are geographical, a reward for bringing great coffee to unexpected places. Others are a recognition of a great or unusual setting for a Coffee Spot.
The first shortlist for the 2013 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Where It All Began” Award. This was won in 2012 by Boston Tea Party (Park Street). This award recognises those special places which played a big part in my personal coffee journey, Coffee Spots which inspired me or in some other way defined my coffee experiences.
This might be the last year I run this award since I’ve now visited/written about most of the formative places from my past. I might run it again for 2014 if I make it to Rome! However, this year it’s an interesting collection, with the majority of the shortlist coming from my trip to the USA in March this year.
Merry Christmas/Happy New Year to all my followers old and new! I hope you had a time and weren’t flooded out of house and home or had to spend the holidays without power (sadly a common occurrence where I live this year).
So, as 2013 comes to an end and we get 2014 underway, I release that it’s been the first complete year of Brian’s Coffee Spot. It’s time to look back on 2013 with the second Annual Brian’s Coffee Spot Awards. Last year I had 11 Awards, but this year, with so many Coffee Spots out there, I’ve increased it to 20. The shortlists for all 20 Awards were announced between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, with the winners announced on New Year’s Day.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who has visited the Coffee Spot, followed me on Twitter, liked my Facebook page or +1ed me on Google+. While I do this for the love of it, it means a lot to me that so many of you take the time to read and comment on my writing. And help spread the love for good coffee.
Brickwood Coffee and Bread is just a couple of doors along from Clapham Common stalwart, Black Lab. The new kid on the block arrived at the end of this summer with a burst of social media activity. Fortunately, the reality lived up to the virtual hype.
For starters, Brickwood is a lovely place. As one would expect from the name, the interior is all brick and wood: exposed brick walls, bare floorboards, a wooden counter and lots of wooden tables. The ceiling, although not brick or wood, is amazing, made up of a patchwork of old coffee sacks. If you don’t fancy sitting in the main area there’s a large, secluded garden and a basement, which has a very different character from upstairs.
Brickwood serves a fairly standard espresso-based menu using London-roaster Caravan’s Market Blend, a great all-round coffee. There’s a good range of sandwiches and an extensive brunch menu, as well as what looked to be an excellent range of cake. However, I was there for brunch and wasn’t able to sample any (although judging by the rate at which the cakes were going, that didn’t seem to be putting most people off!).
For the past two years, Mayfair has been blessed with two very fine Coffee Spots: Everbean and this outpost of the Taylor Street Baristas chain (one of seven in London). Both are lovely, but in terms of coffee geekery, Taylor Street Baristas is the clear winner, with its house blend, guest espresso (both from Union Hand-roasted), guest filter (Climpson and Sons) and abundant tasting notes. There is also a small selection of food and a very appetising range of cake.
However, being good at (perhaps read “obsessive about”) coffee does not necessarily make a great Coffee Spot. Fortunately, Taylor Street Baristas has all the other attributes to be a success in abundance: good atmosphere, lovely surroundings and staff who are completely mad (in the nicest possible way)!
It could have been because it was the end of the day and the staff were cleaning up, but while I was there, the soundtrack was full of corny music, with the baristas singing along. It didn’t quite reach the heights of “Good Times” & “Don’t Bring Me Down” as sung by the baristas at Montréal’s Café Olimpico, but it was in the same league.
April 2016: Taylor Street has started roasting its own coffee, with the Mayfair branch taking it as the main espresso. While production ramps up, the other Taylor Street Baristas only have Taylor Street Roasted as guest espresso/filter, the exception being the Taylor Street Gallery, which has exclusively gone over to Taylor Street Roasted.
September 2019: as part of the sale of Taylor Street Barista’s coffee shops to the Black Sheep chain, the Mayfair coffee shop will close this week.
Compared to some parts of London, Mayfair is a bit bereft of decent coffee, but for the last couple of years, Everbean, along with fellow long(ish)-time resident, Taylor Street Baristas, has been filling the void, supplying the suits and shoppers of the area with fine coffee. I’d been aware of Everbean for a while, but never had the opportunity to visit. Ironic then that I was actually heading for Taylor Street Baristas on Brooks Mews when Everbean jumped out at me as I passed by.
Located in an interesting-shaped building (it used to be a hairdressers), tucked away on the pedestrianised Avery Row, Everbean is a lovely spot, although it took me a second visit before I really fell for the place. Serving no-nonsense Climpson and Sons coffee, along with a wide range of tea and a good selection of cake, sandwiches and other savouries, Everbean has a dedicated band of customers and on both my visits was consistently busy.
Seating is in a mezzanine level above the counter or downstairs on a large, round, communal table or a bar that runs along the inside of the bay window. There is also a table outside if the weather is nice.
A little while ago, I decided to take the plunge and go into the brave world of Coffee Spot merchandising with a Coffee Spot Calendar for 2014. I have to say that I’ve been overwhelmed with the response: I thought that if I could produce 50 of them and break even I’d be happy. As it was, I printed 100 and, as I write this, I have just seven five four two left sold out! If you still want one, I might be getting some returns and I can always print some more, so do let me know if you are interested.
If you have somehow managed to miss the calendar so far, it’s professionally-printed, A4 in size, with the week starting on Monday. It’s on extra-glossy 235 g/m2 paper and I have to say that I am really pleased with the quality which far exceeded my expectations. However, you don’t have to take my word for it since fellow-blogger, The Coffeisseur, has written a review of it. Each month features a full-sized picture from one of the Coffee Spots I covered in that month. You can see all the pictures and which Coffee Spots have been featured in the gallery below.
TAP (Tapped and Packed as was) is a chain of three (now four) central London coffee shops. I featured No 114 (Tottenham Court Road) earlier this year and thought it was time for another, the flagship No 193 on Wardour Street. TAP’s reputation is built on its coffee, all roasted in the Probat at the back of No 193. If you want to see it in action, you’ll need to visit on Tuesday (which, ironically, I’ve never managed).
TAP regularly rotates its coffee, having no house blend. At the moment there are two espressos, a blend (for milk) and a single estate (to have black). There are three single origins on the V60 filter: a Guatemalan, an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and a Rwandan Musasa Ruli.
As well as the attraction of watching the coffee roasting, No 193 is a lovely place to sit and drink said coffee. It’s the largest of the three, long and thin, but well-lit by a generous supply of windows. Inside it’s all wood, with bare floorboards and white-washed walls. The only exception is the coffee counter which is metal (albeit with a wooden top). The atmosphere is rounded off with quiet music and the gentle hum of conversation.
I must confess that “The Dry Goods Store” does not immediately strike me as the obvious name for a coffee shop. However, on further reflection, what are coffee beans other than dry goods? It’s only the finished product that is wet… And, in fairness, Dry Goods is far more than just a coffee shop. It combines the twin passions of its owner, Yasmeen: excellent coffee and cutting down on food/packaging waste.
Tucked away on a parade of shops, restaurants and delicatessens (I can recommend La Piccola Dely) in the leafy northwest London streets of Maida Vale, Dry Goods is a delightful place. It’s on Lauderdale Road, near its confluence with Elgin Avenue, Castellain Road and Morshead Road. It might only be a kilometre from the hustle and bustle of Paddington and its surroundings, but it’s a very different, and much more peaceful world.
Dry Goods is a throw-back to shops of a generation or two ago. It sells a range of, well, dry (food) goods including some excellent coffee beans from London roasters Volcano. However, it’s not just a bean retailer, since, perched on the end of the counter is a single-group espresso machine dispensing some lovely coffee.
January 2017: Sadly, Dry Goods has closed, with Yasmeen moving on to other things, but still within the sustainability movement. I wish her every success in her new endeavours.