Espresso bar · Kitchen · Roast log
Two espressos, three filters and whatever the kitchen has proofed since five. We write down what we are pouring each morning, change it when the beans tell us to, and keep one long table free for people who need to talk.
Through the day
If you are choosing when to come, this is the honest version. Mornings are quick and quiet, midday is for eating, and the last stretch belongs to whoever is still working.
The grinder is dialled in by ten past seven and we do not play music until nine. Two baristas on bar, so a cup takes about three minutes at the busiest point. Bring your own cup and we will take thirty pence off.
The filter batch changes at eleven, so this is the window to try whatever is new without committing to a whole bag. The kitchen runs its short menu until three and the two window tables are first come, no holding.
After two the long table is unlocked for anyone, power strips down the middle, and we stop grinding for espresso at quarter to five. Decaf is the same bean as the house blend, so an afternoon cup is not a downgrade.
The list
Milk drinks are built on the house blend unless you ask for the single. Oat, whole and semi are the same price. Everything is available to take away in a cup we would happily drink from ourselves.
Single origin on espresso: add £0.40
Standing bean orders are arranged by email — ask below
Roast log
We roast on Tuesdays in the back room and write up each lot the same day. If a coffee stops tasting the way the note says, it comes off the bar early.
Grown at 1,750 metres and dried on raised beds for twelve days. We roast it light enough to keep the blackcurrant edge but stop short of the sharpness you get when these coffees are pushed. It takes milk better than most Kenyans, which is why it is sitting next to the house blend this fortnight rather than only on filter.
A honey process from a six-hectare farm we have bought from for three seasons. Expect something rounder and sweeter than the Kenyan: stone fruit, a little caramel, and enough body to stand up as a pourover without disappearing. It goes on batch brew the Thursday after roasting, once it has had two days to settle.
Kitchen
The pastry is laminated on Sunday and baked off through the week. Everything else goes on when you order it, which is why the plates take a little longer than the coffee.
01 / Baked here
Out of the oven at 7:15 and again around eleven if the morning has been busy.
02 / Cooked to order
Sourdough comes from a bakery two streets over. Eggs are free range, cooked soft unless you say otherwise.
03 / Good to know
Ask at the counter and we will tell you exactly what is in a dish — the kitchen keeps a folder of every supplier sheet.
Visit
Most of the room is first come. The only thing we hold is the fourteen-seat table, and standing bean orders, both of which we arrange by email.
