Siempre Bicycle Café

The Siempre Bicycle Café logo, a stylised face with a handlebar moustache, painted in black on the white brick wall at the café .Glasgow’s Siempre Bicycle Café continues the long association between cycling and coffee, occupying a multi-facetted space right next to the Kelvinhall Metro station in Glasgow’s West End.

Out front, there’s a cycle shop and sales room, where you can, if you like, sit and take your coffee, while at the back, there’s an equally large room where more typical café seating shares the space with the counter, which itself encloses an open-plan kitchen. If you keep on going, there’s also a large, sheltered garden right at the back. Unless, of course, you’re coming from the station, in which case you reach the garden first, then the café and finally the bike shop. Siempre also has a takeaway window, so you don’t even have to go inside if you don’t want to.

Serving Dear Green Coffee’s Goosedubs blend on espresso, with single origins available as filter from both Dear Green and another local roaster, Charlie Mills, Siempre has got the coffee side of things covered. There’s also an impressive array of tasty-looking cakes, plus a very comprehensive food offering. This being a cycle shop as well as a café, there’s also plenty of secure bicycle storage both inside and out.

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Razzo Coffee

A fine Extract Espresso from Razzo Coffee, St Andrew Square, EdinburghYou could be forgiven for walking past Razzo Coffee on St Andrew Square, thinking that it is not for you in your hunt for top-notch coffee. However, you would be mistaken. Razzo is that rarest of things, a specialist coffee shop with a passion for great coffee, but in a tourist-trap setting.

For those who don’t know Edinburgh, St Andrew Square is at the east end of George Street, right in the centre of town. It’s the perfect place for tourists and shoppers alike to take the weight off their feet and enjoy a quick coffee or tea. At first glance, this is not where you’d expect to find excellent coffee, but Paul, the owner, is passionate about his coffee and has gone to great lengths to ensure that his customers get the best.

As well as fine coffee to drink in or takeaway, there’s also tea, a range of sandwiches, Panini, cake and pastries, along with soup for a cold winters’ day. While I was there, there was a steady stream of customers, and, a very good sign, lots of regulars. So, next time you’re down that end of Edinburgh’s centre, don’t just walk past, pop in!

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