Trendy cycle cafes

[outlash]

Still not been there - at only 7 miles from my house I wouldn't feel I've earnt a coffee by the time I get there. But it could be a destination for a pre-Christmas Cycle Chat Saturday ride from Cambridge........

If you want to 'earn' that coffee, you could try the blue egg down in Gt. Bardfield, as frequented by Cav & the Dowsetts: http://www.theblueegg.co.uk/kneadfood.html Very decent.

Or you could try http://magliarosso.co.uk/ near Bury St. Edmunds and dribble over the gorgeous Ritte frames they've built up.

 

[Andy_R]

pfft....all you northern cyclists should be ashamed...( by northern I mean anyone who lives north of Durham on the east coast, and Carlisle on the west coast. Anyone south of that lives in the Midlands.) Parkhead Station is THE cafe in the north. Everything else is just daffodil country

 

[Pale Rider]

pfft....all you northern cyclists should be ashamed...( by northern I mean anyone who lives north of Durham on the east coast, and Carlisle on the west coast. Anyone south of that lives in the Midlands.) Parkhead Station is THE cafe in the north. Everything else is just daffodil country

Don't get me started on Parkhead Station.

Grumpy proprietor, tiny cups of coffee, and don't get caught having a mouthful of your own food - even outside the premises - or you will be ticked off.

 

[Andy_R]

Don't get me started on Parkhead Station.

Grumpy proprietor, tiny cups of coffee, and don't get caught having a mouthful of your own food - even outside the premises - or you will be ticked off.

ermmm...must be either a different PHS or they didn't like you on a personal level. I've never had any problems (regularly cycle up from Sunderland and back with cafe/cake stop at PHS)

 

[Pale Rider]

ermmm...must be either a different PHS or they didn't like you on a personal level. I've never had any problems (regularly cycle up from Sunderland and back with cafe/cake stop at PHS)

Quite a few cyclists speak well of the place, but equally quite a few do not.

My experiences have been mixed.

A group of us are due to go there at the weekend, as you say it's a decent out and back ride from Sunderland.

The suggestion - not at my behest - is to do a swift turn around at Parkhead and take lunch on the way back at the cafe at Hownsgill, which my lot have found to be more welcoming and to serve cheaper and better food and drink in recent times.

When I last spoke to the owner at Parkhead, she all but told me she was concentrating on full dinners for the car drivers.

That's fair enough, she has a living to earn and cyclists are not known to be big spenders.

 

[robjh]

If you want to 'earn' that coffee, you could try the blue egg down in Gt. Bardfield, as frequented by Cav & the Dowsetts: http://www.theblueegg.co.uk/kneadfood.html Very decent.

Or you could try http://magliarosso.co.uk/ near Bury St. Edmunds and dribble over the gorgeous Ritte frames they've built up.

Good choices. The Blue Egg and Maglia Rosso are both on my cycling radar - the Blue Egg's cakes and pastries are no.1 in my world.

 

[outlash]

Me and a couple of friends did CCA's 'ride of the 3 cafe's' that took in the Blue Egg, Maglia Rosso and Bicicletta and the Blue Egg was possibly my favourite .

 

[Blue Hills]

Coffee in cafes seems hit and miss to me.

I've had some lovely cups made from artisan beans and on a machine the size of a juke box.

I've also had disappointing cups made the same way.

McDonald's coffee - like their food - is nothing if not consistent.

Fine if you like it, which I do.

I'd run a mile from anything described as artisan.
I'm a real coffee head, have several coffee makers including a proper gaggia.
Spoons filter coffee isn't half bad (they use lavazza coffee i think) and monday to friday at least (not sure about other days) you can have free refills up to 2pm. Very welcome after an early morning run or an early start from a campsite. I can't exist without good coffee.

 

[Blue Hills]

Not exactly trendy but I quite like the cafe on hellifield station. Wonderful station as well since it was done up - glorious ironwork.

 

[TheDoctor]

I have The Handle Bar in Hitchin, inside the Kinetic bike shop, and Emily's tea shop in Whitwell, which has ample reading material, home made cakes and a used bike shop. Both pretty good.

 

[srw]

There's something similar in York, the not very snappily titled Bicis Y Mas.

The spiritual home of the Twea? thread?

 

[biggs682]

so what is the great attraction in these trendy hipster places , where you get charged inflated prices ?

please explain it to me as i dont understand why

 

[Pale Rider]

so what is the great attraction in these trendy hipster places , where you get charged inflated prices ?

please explain it to me as i dont understand why

The attraction is there is no attraction for curmudgeons such as yourself, meaning we trendy hipster dudes get to enjoy our skinny lattes in like-minded company.

 

[biggs682]

The attraction is there is no attraction for curmudgeons such as yourself, meaning we trendy hipster dudes get to enjoy our skinny lattes in like-minded company.

fair enough

 

[Pale Rider]

fair enough

To be more serious, one or two of these places seem to stock bikes that you don't see in most shops.

Take the York one in my OP, they have steel town/hipster bikes, which I'm sure you'd be interested in looking at.

Bespoke titanium frame builder J.Laverack have their bikes in another 'trendy' bike/cafe.

http://www.bicisymas.co.uk/cafe

http://www.cafe-ventoux.cc/cycle-boutique/