Daydreaming about leading an alternative life is a common theme.
I love the idea of being my own boss, nothing too large scale, just having my own premises and a small business ticking along nicely.
I’ve often wondered if I could run a successful cafe, and as I live in a cycling rich area then perhaps it’s not such a far fetched idea..

So what do you guy’s look for in a cafe during your days in the saddle?

My list of givens, in a somewhat particular order, goes:

Quality cheese straws (must be reasonably priced)
Quality flapjack – energy packed with dates/nuts etc
Frothy Coffee
Strong espresso
Builders tea
Posh Tea
Cake (which varieties HAVE to be on the cake list?)
Proper homemade savories – sausage rolls, scotch eggs, pasties etc

For ambiance i’d personally like to see:

Retro furniture/wood finishes
Old school sound system churning out chilled choons
Various wall art from local artists
Dog friendly (water/biscuits available for pooches)
Vinyl evenings
Secure bike parking
Supply of spares, ie, tubes, sealant, tyre levers, chain links, whisky.
Local bike club merch.
Other daft merch.

What else would be required to make this THE go to cafe? The one you ensure your route frequently passes through..

No smelly lycra.

Outside seating
A pump
maybe a repair stand (see cyclehoops.com)
hydration tabs
organised rides

No hipster twaddle, no posh coffees, just a normal caf with secure bike parking.

ah of course, yes, free air would be mandatory.

Repair stand = great shout.

Organised rides, i’d certainly hope that local clubs would like to get involved. Cafe ride outs would be awesome.

I do however have hipster tendencies.. where do we draw the line with coffee?

Bike parking, free lock loan.

free bidon re fills

decent coffee, home made cakes (carrot) and savoury stuff.

breakfasts, poached eggs, oatmeal, that kind of stuff.

Take away snacks for your jersey pockets.

Instant life ban for anyone saying bidon instead of bottle.

Same applies to any use of the word chapeau that is not in a conversation with a French person on the subject of millinery.

RE bike lock loan – I have actually contemplated this in that past. The trouble I see is liability. Who’s responsible if a lock gets cut/bike stolen?
Not that i’d want to discount the idea, but it’d have to be carefully considered. Everyone wants their bike to be safe.

So ‘CHAPEAU’ isn’t a good name for this Caf then?.. 😉

No hipster twaddle, no posh coffees, just a normal caf with secure bike parking

Basically this, although no harm in doing nice coffee.

Somewhere comfortable, clean, warm, with good service, good food and reasonable prices. That’s it.

Bacon butties with thick flavoursome local bacon (not water filled anaemic supermarket bacon). Butter.
Clotted Cream Teas
+1 for wooden furniture that I don’t have to be concerned at sitting down on with muddy shorts.
Decent sized mugs for tea.

Well publicised opening times so I know you’ll be open when I loop your way.

Andy

So ‘CHAPEAU’ isn’t a good name for this Caf then?..

No. But “HAT!” would be a great name!

Take a ride over to Stan’s on the Downslink and order a coffee plus something to eat. Whilst you are waiting (and waiting) for your order (hoping you get what you asked for) have a think about whether you could do anything better

Bacon butties with thick flavoursome local bacon

There’s award winning butchers around my way (and brewery) – i’d love to think that the vast majority on offer would be locally sourced and all the better for it.

Pricing would be trickier, no one wants to put people off with prices – the butcher above sells scotch eggs at £2.50ea – which made me wince, until i tried one, which made me aroused. So so good.

No. But “HAT!” would be a great name!

An anti-french theme! Has wings..

Awesome scotch eggs? I’m there already 😀

That + bara brith, cold-pressed fruit/chocolate ride bars and nice espresso.

Rapha in Soho has this covered, hop on in there in your left leg, take a look around, hop out with a template.

For me, just having the bloody stuff available is the key.
How many times have you been to your fave place only to be told that there’s no cheese straws left (its 11am, are you serious?!)

Pricing would be trickier, no one wants to put people off with prices

Discount for anyone in cycling gear to round all prices down to the nearest quid.

No room for a pocketful of loose change in lycra.

So ‘CHAPEAU’ isn’t a good name for this Caf then?..

Safer than calling it Roubaix

http://cafevelobeverley.co.uk

but closer

Rachel

So is there room for this place on the SDW then folks?

All this cheese straw talk has reminded me of another key food you need:

Staffordshire oat cakes. mmmmmmm

Lots of tea and slabs of light fruit cake.

Sadly, it seems difficult to find a good home-made fruit cake.

Fast service is good. I don’t use local cafes on normal rides, and only have café stops on audax rides.

Some provision for the latest roadie fad diet 🙂

So ‘CHAPEAU’ isn’t a good name for this Caf then?..
Safer than calling it Roubaix

We had both within a 5 minute ride a few months ago 😯

Good coffee & fresh stuff served by the Swedish women’s mtb team.
For equalties sake , the men’s team can do bank holidays .
No cheese straws please ,they give me heartburn.

On top of the above.

TV with cycling event coverage. Eg tdf, giro etc.
Screenings nights. Bike culture related movies and shows. E.g the untold British mtb story, triplets of bouville.
Guest speakers nights. From cycling touring to racing.
How to and example shows. Lmnh had a mini frame building example show a few years ago. It was rammed.

Bonus points for a fire.

P.s. chip and ice cream. Not together!

So is there room for this place on the SDW then folks?

If you appeal to a broad range of clientele (walkers, roadies, MTB, daytrippers etc), probably.

If you make it all bikewanker, probably not.

I’d suggest starting simple.

Furniture/décor wise, it needs to be easy to clean and easy to keep looking clean, especially if muddy and sweaty cyclists are involved.

I’d avoid the tools and parts thing, unless you really want to be a part bike shop as well. All you need to stock really are inner tubes, and have a decent multi tool and track pump handy for customers.

Definitely need indoor and outdoor seating, and bike stands. But don’t supply locks. You are not responsible for people looking after their expensive toys. Though CCTV of the bike parking area would be a good idea after a recent incident in Hope.

Coffee needs to be decent but not excessively fancy. Food needs to be reasonably priced and filling. Suggest you try looking on here:

My Spiritual Home

and check out what ALL the cafe’s near you are doing. If there are none on there near you, then just crack on!

Duvel

PPS sometimes all I want is a filter coffee, a big one! Or refills when ordering with food. Common in the USA not so over here.

Various wall art from local artists a talented STW-er 😀

Various wall art from local artists[u] a talented STW-er[/u]

You realise that Binners’ new ‘career’ as an artist is just a rouse cooked up by social services to keep him quiet at the local daycare facility?

*patronising voice* “And you’re doing very well, aren’t you Adam?”

I run a pop-up café once a month (more in Summer) in Lewes and it works for me cause I like cooking, music, talking bikes and get to do all three on my own terms.
In addition to good breakfasts and coffee we have bike tools, jumble, info etc and people seems to like the balance. Don’t make any money but I cover my costs which is good enough.

Important things to me in a café is proper coffee without the hipster bullshit. A good cinnamon bun is always a bonus.

Coffee needs to be decent but not excessively fancy

True enough – I’d be more than happy with decent filter coffee or French presses rather than all the fancy bollocks at three times the price

Decent hot chocolate
Warm sausage rolls (warm, not ‘warmed up in the microwave’)
Jacket spuds
Nothing like a good hearty stew/chunky soup/curry with bread in the winter

Really simple morning menu – porridge, bacon/sausage/egg baps

‘Ride through’ window for coffees and ice creams etc.

Slimjim – yes. The cafe at Amberley is OK but improveable. It’s more like an outdoors restaurant tbh. The newish YHA cafe at Southease is very underwhelming and stupid expensive.

Something like the Kiosk right at the very (Eastbourne) end would be great. Normal honest cafe.

Omellets

> poached eggs
+1. And served all day.

Lemon drizzle cake. Proper stuff where the lemon goes right inside. Cherry bakewell slice.

When do you open?

Coffee*, carrot cake, and things made from pigs and eggs (mainly: butties, scotch eggs, sausage rolls). But all done well. Really well. Provided that box is ticked, I don’t care whether it’s hipster trendy or spit and sawdust, although I do like to bask in the sun in summer and hide somewhere warm in winter.

Which bit of the SDW are you thinking? There are a couple of spots where I could use an extra option 😉

* if you can make a proper macchiato, I mean proper, I will spread the word.

Cake in quantities never seen by the eyes of man before. Some of it healthy granola-ey stuff, because some cyclists are healthy granola-ey types, and some of it total chocolate death.

And one of these.

Wtf is a cheese straw they sound horrible.

Quality coffee. Ability to get best out of both beans and machine. ‘frothy coffee’ or ‘strong espresso’ wouldn’t cut it. If you’re a cycling cafe you need to embrace coffee ****.