Let’s get Thursday underway with the shortlist for the 2022 Coffee Spot Award for “Coffee Spot with the Best Lighting”. This was won last year by Taylor’s Coffee House.
Lighting in coffee shops has long held a fascination for me, with most of the galleries containing a shot or two of an interesting light-fitting. This Award celebrates those Coffee Spots with particularly outstanding lighting.
Next in the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards is the shortlist for “Best Neighbourhood Coffee Spot”. In 2021 this went to Bank Street Social and it 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 the year, which are often slightly off the beaten track.
This Award has quite a wide geographical spread, with Coffee Spots from across America, ranging from California to Portland, Maine, while in the UK, there are several much closer to home on The Wirral.
The third shortlist in this year’s Awards is for the “Coffee Spot with the Best Basement/Mezzanine” Award, which last year went to Java Roastery, Moseley Village. As regular readers will know, I have a soft spot for Coffee Spots with good basements, although this year I have really struggled to find any! As a result, I’ve expanded the Award to include mezzanines, another favourite feature of mine, but even so, this year’s shortlist is very short indeed!
At first sight, mezzanines (upstairs) have very little in common with basements (downstairs) but they are both spaces separate from the main coffee shop where you can get away from it all. This award celebrates those Coffee Spots with outstanding basements or mezzanines, the sort of places you want to go and spend all day in! It also includes those Coffee Spots which, while not technically basements, have that basement-like feel to them.
The second shortlist in the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Best Takeaway Coffee” Award, won last year by Lily London, Guildford. It recognises those places which, often braving the elements, still produce an excellent cup of coffee. This includes coffee carts, coffee stalls, those Coffee Spots which are so small that they only serve takeaway coffee and those Coffee Spots where I regularly get my takeaway coffee (even if they offer a regular sit-in option).
It was the case that I didn’t feature many takeaway places on the Coffee Spot, but these days, now that I travel extensively for work, I often have to grab a coffee to go during a break in the meeting (always remembering to bring my own cup with me!). As a result, I’m finding lots of great takeaway places out there, serving some really excellent coffee.
The first shortlist for the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Most Unlikely Place to Find a Coffee Spot” Award, won in 2021 by Garden Social Coffee House. While there are good Coffee Spots everywhere, some of them are in unexpected places, either geographically or in terms of their setting.
This Award celebrates these unlikely Coffee Spots and is defined by those on the shortlist. Some are in towns and cities where I wasn’t expecting to find a great Coffee Spot, while others are recognised for their unusual settings.
Merry Christmas to all my readers old and new! Once again, it’s time for the Coffee Spot Awards, now into their ELEVENTH year! The Awards allow me to reflect on all the great places I’ve written about this year and to give them all some more well-deserved time in the limelight. As usual, there are 20 Awards, the shortlists being publishing between now and New Year’s Day, with the winners announced on Monday, 2nd January (a day later than usual).
After two relatively quiet years, 2022 took off (literally) when work-related travel restarted in May 2022, with a trip to Berlin. I’m now very much back on the work travel treadmill, which is why UK-based Coffee Spots have been a little thin on the ground this year. 2022 has also been a year of personal upheaval. My father died in February, resulting in me inheriting the family home in North Wales. This also prompted my decision to return to live in Wales after 25 years in Guildford, the move being completed (unless you count unpacking) on Friday, two days before Christmas.
Thanks to everyone who’s shared some or all of the year with me by reading my posts on the Coffee Spot, following me on Twitter, liking my Facebook page, or looking at my Instagram pictures. While I do this for the love of coffee, it means a lot that you take the time to read and comment on my writing. Without you, it really would be pointless.
Today’s Coffee Spot takes us back to October and the final coffee stop of my American road-trip, when we called into Sioux City, Iowa on our way to Madison, South Dakota. Like the first stop of the trip, Niedlov’s Cafe & Bakery in Chattanooga, Hardline Coffee was a chance find, this time the result of an internet search. A separate business located inside Art SUX Gallery on 4th Street in downtown Sioux City, Hardline acts as the in-house coffee shop, although both it and the gallery are fully open to the public, the gallery offering extensive seating options, including a sheltered outdoor terrace at the front.
While a chance find, I knew that I’d come to the right place as soon as I saw the roaster in the window and the Sanremo Café Racer (my second of the trip) on the counter inside. Hardline roasts its own single-origin Brazilian for use on the Sanremo, while North Carolina’s Black & White Coffee Roasters provides various filter options that are available as either as batch brew or pour-over. There’s a range of seasonal drinks and teas from nearby Artemis Tea, while if you’re hungry, Hardline has the usual selection of cakes and pastries.
I first went to New Orleans with my Coffee Spot hat on during 2018, when I visited for the weekend. I knew very little about the city’s small but vibrant speciality coffee scene, although one name that kept coming up was Sólo Espresso, which became the second stop on my short tour. I immediately fell in love with the basement-like space and, two years later, I was very sad to hear the news that Sólo Espresso had closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two years after that and I was back in New Orleans for my second weekend visit. On my first day, the staff at Congregation Coffee Roasters confirmed that Sólo Espresso was indeed gone for good. However, they told me some good news: a new coffee shop, Lowdown, had opened in its place, so the next day I made it my first stop.
If you knew Sólo Espresso, then Lowdown will feel very familiar, with essentially the same layout and friendly welcome. Ruby Coffee Roasters is on espresso, along with a guest roaster, plus another on batch brew filter. Meanwhile, if you’re hungry, there’s a range of cakes and pastries, all made on-site, with a brunch special each weekend.
The Proper Cup, on Portland’s busy Forest Avenue, has been on my radar ever since it opened in 2018. Located on the west side of the street, it principally serves the local neighbourhood, but is on the route of the No. 2 bus and, if you’re walking around Back Cove along Baxter Boulevard, a small diversion along Dartmouth Street will bring you out opposite The Proper Cup. After being takeaway only for a long time during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Proper Cup had a complete makeover before reopening earlier this year to reveal a bright, uncluttered shop with the counter on the right, window seating at the front, plus tables and a sofa on the left.
The coffee is from New Hampshire’s Flight Coffee Co., with the Liftoff blend and Ground Control decaf on espresso, all the shots pulled on a lovely Slayer espresso machine at the end of the counter. Meanwhile there’s currently a Zanzibar Peaberry from Tanzania on batch brew filter, along with a range of teas, iced coffee and some seasonal house specials. If you’re hungry, a selection of sweet and savoury products from a pair of local bakeries are available in a display case on the counter.
Today’s Saturday Snapshot, Houndstooth Coffee in downtown Austin, is the second in the series and shares a lot with the first, Devoción in New York City. Like Devoción, which was a mere block and a half from where I was working in New York, Houndstooth was just around the corner from my workplace in downtown Austin and, like Devoción, it was perpetually busy. I called in twice a day from three straight days, either for morning coffee on my way to the office or during various coffee breaks.
There are two options on espresso, a house blend and a single-origin, both of which change every day or so. There’s also batch brew filter and pour-over, although you have to know to ask for that. All the coffee is from Tweed Coffee Roasters, Houndstooth’s sister company, which is based in Dallas, where Houndstooth has three more locations to go with its five Austin coffee shops. While it’s mostly about the coffee, if you’re hungry, Houndstooth has breakfast tacos and a selection of cakes/pastries.