What make for a great coffee shop?

sedohre

Over Coffee a few friends were saying why we go to the places we go for coffee and why. Is the feel of the place, the music or lack there of, the quality of the coffee, the food that goes with it, the staff, location, I could go on.

What do you want from your coffee shop?

In a nut shell, why do you go to the places you go?

Slaphead07

I often mull over this as I harbour notions of opening a coffee shop sometime.... anyway, in no particular order as they're all essential....

Good quality consistent coffee and teas.
Friendly well trained staff.
Clean comfortable premises in a good location - big window for "people watching" is good too!
Good quality simple food/soup.
Music should be unobtrusive - conversation and reading are more important - probably Brazilian or indie.

JIZZLORD

Slaphead07 wrote: »

Good quality consistent coffee and teas.
Friendly well trained staff.
Clean comfortable premises in a good location - big window for "people watching" is good too!
Good quality simple food/soup.
Music should be unobtrusive - conversation and reading are more important - probably Brazilian or indie.

That sounds exactly like Bar bazzar, a tiny cafe that used to be in the middle of sligo a few years back. (though lack of food.)

it was a tiny wee place, my bedroom is bigger than it was. they had great world music on the sound system, though never too loud. it was a great place to hang out. but it eventually closed.

OPENROAD

Firstly the coffee has to be good, so many places get it wrong imo.

Has to be clean.

Good selection of newspapers.

Good music and as mentioned not loud, not just volume.

Friendly staff.


Extras- great coffee shop I go to in London, that charge £1.80 for a great latte, and if you have it before 11:30am you get a free croissant. Haven't found the same value here in Dublin.


Location and ambience, being able to watch the world outside go by.
Loyalty cards are also a good thing as long as quality is good.

sedohre

There was a restaurant/cafe in Ranelagh that used to give you a mini chocolate croissant free with your coffee, which I thought was a lovely touch, but the food itself wasn't good. Another place on wexford street gave out a couple of biscuits free with your coffee.

I go to a couple of places often mainly because I like the staff or the owners.
I feel a loyalty to the owners. I think thats my main reason??

One place I go to because they do good quality soup and sandwiches, the staff and owners are nice, but the coffee itself is just ok.

Another for their deserts and good coffee even though the staff aren't that friendly, they actually don't seem to see you as an individual, just another customer. I don't feel loyalty to them at all, but the deserts are great.

Are we allowed to say the names of places?

Blisterman

Free WiFi.
For some reason it's really hard to find anywhere in London with this.

Slaphead07

Blisterman wrote: »

Free WiFi.
For some reason it's really hard to find anywhere in London with this.

You're dead right. Customers expect it these days and even if you only go for one coffee chances are you'll be back again. Kudos my badly burnt friend.

Papad

Slaphead07 wrote: »

I often mull over this as I harbour notions of opening a coffee shop sometime.... anyway, in no particular order as they're all essential....

Good quality consistent coffee and teas.
Friendly well trained staff.
Clean comfortable premises in a good location - big window for "people watching" is good too!
Good quality simple food/soup.
Music should be unobtrusive - conversation and reading are more important - probably Brazilian or indie.

Coffee shops in Ireland suck (for the most part). They really haven’t a clue.
There are 2 decent places in Cork city. One has comfortable seating and a reasonable ambience but the coffee is not great. And the other place has fantastic espresso drinks but it is the size of my ensuite at home. Haven’t come across a decent gourmet coffee shop in Limerick.

I would like to open up a place that fills my criteria but don’t want to spend all my waking hours working in it so need a reliable partner to share this lifestyle choice. Want a place that is open past 6 pm …… maybe have some live acoustic music at night.
A place where you can go to get away from it all.
A place for like-minded people to appreciate (and discuss) the finer things in life, or not.
A place to zone out and people watch out a huge window (better than any big screen TV).
A place .....................................................

johnnyskeleton

Papad wrote: »

Coffee shops in Ireland suck (for the most part). They really haven’t a clue.
There are 2 decent places in Cork city. One has comfortable seating and a reasonable ambience but the coffee is not great. And the other place has fantastic espresso drinks but it is the size of my ensuite at home.

I'm glad you appreciate that Cork is not part of Ireland.

What Ireland is lacking in most are late night cafes. I find it odd that cafe insomnia closes at around 6pm. You need somewhere that you can go to for an hour to two in the evening that's not a pub if you want to read a book or whatever. Other countries have them, but Ireland (or at least Dublin) seems to be sadly lacking.

The best coffee shops I've ever been to were in Vienna (obviously). Excellent coffee, 19th century charm, lazy atmosphere and an old men playing the paino/other instrument in the corner.

SeaSide

The cups/mugs that they use.

Espresso cups are fairly standard but I hate the wide cappuccino cups and the glass latte things. Whereas I love my morning coffee mug.

Also good cane sugar as well as sweetener for the 5%

sedohre

I agree on the idea of having free Wifi, however if you were a shop owner I think I would limit it to 30mins per purchase, as McD's do.

I don't mind the wide cups, for me it's that some of the cups and mugs have too thick a rim. It does make a difference if your holding and drinking from something thats ergonomically uncomfortable to use.

A lot of places have those dredful metal tea pots that always drip as your trying to pour from them. I think all of them should banned and be recycled.

Crumble Froo

my fave place would be the lovinspoon, quite close to the city centre. my friend and i discovered it due to a long running joke about spooning, and her suddenly realising that her bus went past a place called 'lovinspoon'... we kinda made it a thing to stop in there weekly to catch up (we went to college together, but i dropped out, so catching up became more of an issue)... and i have to say, between the friendly staff, good cuppa teas, chilled out atmosphere and interesting/easy listening music, i've grown quite fond of the place.

living in new zealand now, and i'm struggling to find somewhere to replace my weekly spoonin...

BendiBus

Somewhere like Café Noto on Thomas St.

Free WiFi & newspapers, excellent clientelle (fascinating mix of students,newspaper readers, tourists en route to Guinness etc.), good coffee, friendly staff, high ceiling so feels airy & spacious, great music played quietly, corner site with plenty of windows to look out of, comfortable seating.

luckat

I'm actually hunting for a cafe reasonably local to me in Dublin - which is to say Rathmines, Rathgar, Ranelagh, Terenure, Harold's Cross, Kimmage or Rathfarnham.

I like Cake (go through Inreda in Camden Street - the handmade paper shop - and out through the back. Delicious cakes, good tea in proper teapots, nice, intelligent, efficient staff, and nice soupy salady kind of food. But it's a bit dear.

I like Maison des Gourmets, on the street where Grogan's is - not South William Street but the one around the corner. Delicious onion soup, good coffee, nice, efficient staff. Downside: no viewable window.

Burger King in O'Connell Street is ideal from the window point of view (literally) but the food is not to my taste.

Queen of Tarts in Dame Street is brilliant for cakes and tea and salads, but it's tiny. The one across the road in City Hall is in the basement, and the ghost of Red Hugh O'Donnell is always shiveringly looking over your shoulder - no view.

What I'm wondering is where all the big Russian cafes are - we have all the eastern Europeans, why aren't they opening cafes? (One of the nicest cafes I ever saw was in St Paul de Vence in the south of France, where many White Russians fled during the Revolution. It was a long, window-rich cafe with a balcony in front; inside, people drank endless glasses of tea from samovars and read or played chess or chatted; outside, people played boules. This is the kind of place I want.)

As for wifi - I was in Howard's End in Rathgar today; didn't like the atmosphere much, and the coffee was drastic, but there was an open wifi connection. Solas in Aungier Streeet has one too, though I find their food rather variable.

Slaphead07

luckat wrote: »

I'm actually hunting for a cafe reasonably local to me in Dublin - which is to say Rathmines, Rathgar, Ranelagh, Terenure, Harold's Cross, Kimmage or Rathfarnham.

Cafe Moda in Rathmines is up for sale. Worth a Google.

luckat

Slaphead07 wrote: »

Cafe Moda in Rathmines is up for sale. Worth a Google.

Heh - when I say I'm hunting for a cafe, it's to drink tea in, not to buy and run!

Slaphead07

luckat wrote: »

Heh - when I say I'm hunting for a cafe, it's to drink tea in, not to buy and run!

Oh right! I still I answered your question.:D
Rathgar, Ranelagh, Terenure, Harold's Cross, Kimmage or Rathfarnham are not well served by nice coffee shops. Although Ranelagh has quite a few they all seem the same - except for a small Italian one at the end of Ashford Rd, they sell Polombino coffee so I presume they're part fo the Dunne & Creszenzi empire. That one is well worth a visit... good grub too.

finkaboutit555

HI,
Rays Pizza (formely Mr. Coffee) on Harcourt Row, Serves good coffee, and also serves good pizza late at night.. Although it does lack some space,Live Music, Couches and most of the other thing that have been mentioned here, But again Coffee is good.. Surely 1 out of X is good!!!

luckat

I'm still waiting hopefully for some of the eastern European people here to see an opportunity and open my ideal cafe in Rathmines - a big airy place full of people playing chess, having interesting talks and passionate political arguments, and drinking tea in glasses, from samovars, with slices of lemon on the edge, while watching the world go by outside....

sedohre

Cafe Moda in Rathmines, I'm sorry to say really sucks. The food is totally ****, coffee and the staff aren't trained at all, in other words they're crap too. I'd hope someone buy's this and totally changes the staff, coffee, food etc. The asking price is I think..is 500,000 euro, for a 25yr lease and then a yearly rental of ....a lot of euros. It's not worth it for the layout of the place, no matter how good the new owners could be. ?

In Ranelagh just for a takeaway coffee I go to cafe society, its good coffee but I don't like to stay in there, I don't like the atmosphere

Any other suggestions?

eclectichoney

The Bald Barista on aungier street does fantastic coffee, and the guy who owns and runs it is a legend. they also sell their own coffee in a take-home bag - nyom!

Slaphead07

eclectichoney wrote: »

The Bald Barista on aungier street does fantastic coffee, and the guy who owns and runs it is a legend. they also sell their own coffee in a take-home bag - nyom!

I've seen that place (from the bus) and felt an immediate bond with the owner :rolleyes: One of these days I'll walk home and drop in for a mug.

Slaphead07

sedohre wrote: »

Cafe Moda in Rathmines, I'm sorry to say really sucks. The food is totally ****, coffee and the staff aren't trained at all, in other words they're crap too. I'd hope someone buy's this and totally changes the staff, coffee, food etc. The asking price is I think..is 500,000 euro, for a 25yr lease and then a yearly rental of ....a lot of euros. It's not worth it for the layout of the place, no matter how good the new owners could be. ?

I actually considered buying the place but I just don't have the time at the moment. The food is a bit ropey alright but the staff are really friendly and just need a bit of training - not a big problem. I found the coffee to be some of the best around btw. I think the layout, although a bit ragged, is part of it's charm. A few big couches and a lick of paint would smarten it up a lot. For all it's faults it's one of the more relaxing cafés in the area.

I'm still half looking around for a nice small easy to run cafe.....

LoanShark

I think Moda Is a nice place to relax. Granted the food is a bit rough, The coffee is sometimes hit or miss,But I like going into it just to chill..

There used to be a nice place at the top end of rathmines called
"La Creme" (I Think) its now Imsomnia, but they had their own bakery out the back and had the best Courgette Cake ever!

Slaphead07

LoanShark wrote: »

There used to be a nice place at the top end of rathmines called
"La Creme" (I Think) its now Imsomnia, but they had their own bakery out the back and had the best Courgette Cake ever!

Ah that place was magic.... but as you say, now gone. Replaced by Insomnia's burnt coffee and conveyor belt muffins:(

luckat

There are also areas where cafes come and go and never stay. For some reason, Dunville Avenue in Ranelagh and the Portobello corner at the end of Rathmines Road.

Slaphead07

luckat wrote: »

There are also areas where cafes come and go and never stay. For some reason, Dunville Avenue in Ranelagh and the Portobello corner at the end of Rathmines Road.

Odd.... I was just discussing this with another poster.... Porobello is, IMHO, still a bit 'downmarket' and not a place to linger over a coffee. That's a pity really as the bridge and plaza are quite pretty but any shops would be down Richmond Street and that's not pretty at all.
Dunville Avenue is a bit similar in that people go there specifially to shop or pass there going to/from the LUAS. Most shoppers are quite local so the notion of going in a for a coffee would be a bit odd. The passing trade is quite literally passing. A big window coffee shop might work if it was on that row across from Mortons but the other sdie of the road is too dark and busy. Ironically I buy my coffee in "Taste of Italy" there. I must nip around now and stock up!

luckat

The Portobello one surprises me because I would have thought it would get passing trade from all the local flatdwellers.

But the Dunville one/s is/are even more baffling, because every time I've eaten in the premises, through a series of different restaurants, the food was great and the staff were nice and efficient (though I once pretended to be having a panic attack to get them to turn down the awful blaring music, after several people had asked already).

Slaphead07

luckat wrote: »

The Portobello one surprises me because I would have thought it would get passing trade from all the local flatdwellers.

I mean no disrespect but they're generally "downmarket" flats and more likely to go home to a cup of instant than order a skinny latte. Could you really see a $tarbuck$ opening there?

luckat wrote: »

But the Dunville one/s is/are even more baffling, because every time I've eaten in the premises, through a series of different restaurants, the food was great and the staff were nice and efficient (though I once pretended to be having a panic attack to get them to turn down the awful blaring music, after several people had asked already).

Yep the food was good but it never felt like a night out, it was like eating in a shopfront. On the other hand "Wild Lillys" (I think that's what it's called) up past O'Briens/Fothergills is doing a roaring trade simply by being homely and serving great food. As I said earlier if that one on Dunville had moved across the road they'd still be in business.

luckat

Must check out Wild Lillys.

I wonder if we're talking about the same series of restaurants in Dunville Avenue. The ones I've eaten in (at the same premises but under a series of managements) were a long corridor shape stretching right back through a deep house.

Slaphead07

Just up from Mortons? It looked like a shop from the front (more or less) and has all the atmosphere of a warm chemist's. It's a beauty parlour type place now.