Coffee prices

[ebikeerwidnes]

Stopped at one of my regular places today. Ordered a flat white and a sticky toffee cake. The Manager decided the piece was a bit too small so gave me an extra slice for free. You don't get that at Starbucks!

I went into a nice cafe late one afternoon and there were only 2 slices of chocolate cake left

I asked for one and the manager was just tidying up as I was getting served
He said "I'm just closing up so we'll never sell that last one and it's a bit small anyway - do you think you can manage both"

my wife rolled her eyes and I got 1 1/2 slices of cake

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

Used to visit Cafe Nero a lot when I got a free one every week but there is none anywhere near me now. Nearest is across the border.

Most of the coffee I drink now comes from a Nespresso machine. I have one at home and one at work, with a milk frother at each location too. From the selection of samples you get with each machine I pretty much stick with a couple of favourites which allows me to do a mug sized coffee, an espresso and a latte depending on what I want at the time.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

I went into a nice cafe late one afternoon and there were only 2 slices of chocolate cake left

I asked for one and the manager was just tidying up as I was getting served
He said "I'm just closing up so we'll never sell that last one and it's a bit small anyway - do you think you can manage both"

my wife rolled her eyes and I got 1 1/2 slices of cake

It's the little things that always brighten up your day!

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Stopped at one of my regular places today. Ordered a flat white and a sticky toffee cake. The Manager decided the piece was a bit too small so gave me an extra slice for free. You don't get that at Starbucks!

Watch yourself on those Starbucks cake slices, you can cut your mouth on them.

 

[mjr]

when i started riding on club rides over a decade ago i used to take £5 note and expect change from coffee and cake , nowadays your lucky to get change from £10

There are still £5 coffee+cake deals in coastal Norfolk if you know where to go (some local cyclists publish maps or at least stop names), and some places around here are famous for "Chelsea-on-sea" prices. Mostly "rijo" coffee which isn't bad, but of course it doesn't support the local roasters.

There was one tourist-aimed pub in Thetford Forest that redid all its internal brickwork with smooth white render and hiked its prices up so drink+cake was over £10. That was about a decade ago and it's still boycotted by at least two cycling groups.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

reminds me 0 I should try a coffee shack that has apparently opened up just round the corner from where I normally turn back on my normal ride
I keep missing it because it is on a road and I normally go on tracks to either side of it!

 

[mjr]

I remember when Heston Blumenthal tried to revive Little Chef. He genuinely worked tirelessly to reinvent the menu. All the execs really wanted was to trade off his name and just knocked all his menu ideas back.

There were a few (maybe three) decent menu items that appeared after that, but there was still a load of dross and it was too little too late, hamstrung by their few remaining branches closing earlier than nearby competing service stations like the horrific Moto (formerly Granada) chaired by late reality TV business guru Sir Gerry Robinson.

Has anyone tried "Brightsides" yet, the new roadside cafes run by the Loungers (which run the various Lounge cafe-bars and Cosy Clubs in town centres)? I think so far there's only a few in the far southwest, plus the Ram-Jam on the A1.

 

[mjr]

Oh, and Greggs coffee isn't too shoddy either.

Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it is. Greggs don't seem great at quality control. It's probably a lottery on which machine has which settings and when it was last serviced.

The food seems to be going more and more junk food with some pretending to be sandwiches, though. Plus the notorious high-fat sausage rolls. At least you don't yet come out smelling deep-friend like most of the US chains, though.

 

[mjr]

One of the things i object to about the current "normal" for coffee is the amount of time it takes

If I want a coffee then I often have to order it and then the person behind the counter has to
turn round
fill a coffee receptacle from a hopper
squish it down witha thingy
put it in the steamy whatsit
get a cup of teh appropriate size and put it under the steamy whatsit
start the steamy whatsit off and wait while the water drips through

hopefully they will get a tray and stuff sorted while this happens - hopefully
then remove the cup and put the used coffee into a bin

then deliver the fresh coffee on the tray

THEN I can pay


all of which takes an awful lot longer than pouring some filter coffee out of a jug

That's just bad practice. If they're busy, they should be loading the next set of handles while the previous ones are dripping. That's part of how an espresso machine is faster than the steam brewers it replaced. Preparing handles while the previous set are brewing is what Café de Colombia on Cambridge Market Hill do when it's busy. Probably the places you see making one at a time in a linear fashion have bosses too stingy to keep a full set of handles for the machine in working order. That suggests they might not be prioritising buying decent coffee either.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

We basically just try to jump from one place to another based on them being part of the tee-bay group if we want something to eat

otherwise we look for a Greggs take away and just have a coffee/tea
cheaper than the stuff inside and generally better

there is some serious rubbish out there

 

[mjr]

For Waitrose customers, they offer a free coffee, but you have to take your own cup. Just need to download their App.

No, a myWaitrose card (or barcode loaded into another app) works too. I don't want their farking app. It'll probably have AI added before long, digging through your phone (or talking to Gemini or Siri that has already dug through your phone, which is basically the same result) so it can suggest things you want to buy, far more expensive than you would have paid for the coffee.

And breathe.

 

[Alex321]

We basically just try to jump from one place to another based on them being part of the tee-bay group if we want something to eat

Do they have more than just the two places (four if you count Northbound and Southbound as separate) now?

I only know of the original, and the one near Gloucester.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Do they have more than just the two places (four if you count Northbound and Southbound as separate) now?

I only know of the original, and the one near Gloucester.

https://westmorlandfamily.com/our-businesses/

 

[cyberknight]

There are still £5 coffee+cake deals in coastal Norfolk if you know where to go (some local cyclists publish maps or at least stop names), and some places around here are famous for "Chelsea-on-sea" prices. Mostly "rijo" coffee which isn't bad, but of course it doesn't support the local roasters.

There was one tourist-aimed pub in Thetford Forest that redid all its internal brickwork with smooth white render and hiked its prices up so drink+cake was over £10. That was about a decade ago and it's still boycotted by at least two cycling groups.

Now dont get me wrong i would rather pay at an independent small business but i avoid the costa nostra etc

 

[Alex321]

https://westmorlandfamily.com/our-businesses/

I hadn't realised that Rheged was also one of theirs, even though we quite often stop there instead. I did know about the Westmoreland hotel (it is advertised at Tebay), but had forgotten. And did not know at all about Cairn Lodge or the J38 truck stop.