Hear hear. If you must have coffee then make them queue up separately for it

Oi! Don’t tar all coffee drinkers with the same brush as a bog-standard filter coffee does me fine. 🙂

Bike parking – this is probably the number one for a group ride.
Tea
Cake
Coffee
Cake
Soft drinks
Cake
Light meals
Cake
.
.
.
And cake, obviously.

Generally not fussy, only requirement is for it not to be filled with old timers who think they own the place and give you daggers or winge outright if you sit on ‘the table they’ve sat on for 35 year’. Thinking of a local place.

Decent locking place in view on the tables. Maybe some fixed ones with keys to borrow?
Tea and coffee in bog mugs as cheap as possible with the money made on silly food.

Fancy coffee in little cups can go with the trendies and Rapha kit in some remote city. that might fit in with a themed café but who the hell would want one. Thats not a cyclists café. Who the hell wants to pay to go somewhere like that? Eat out when riding maybe but really. Otherwise?

Think about those old pics of Milk Bars from the 30’s to 60’s.
Plastic seats so people can go in wet and plenty of radiators in the winter to dry gloves.

I don’t think you can moan about dicks wanting coffee and then ask for eggs benedict! Now eggs on toast perhaps….

Sounds a lot like ‘Polocini’ in Romiley ,Stockport they do a good brew and flapjack in there.

That’s the one! 🙂

Free bottle/camelbak refills and somewhere to watch races in a relaxed environment. Open early for people who want to get out nice and early but, preferably with some good breakfast choices for a long ride (rice pudding, porridge etc) then something with a bit more oomph for post-ride.

That said, I saw Nacer Bouhanni (the guy who won 3 Giro stages and the red jersey this year) tucking into a HUGE sundae yesterday at the end of a training ride.

I’ll add:
Are you running for a theme?
Well it depends on location but I’ve a hankering for rustic Italian cafe bars with home made flapjack/brownies etc. from the Rapha model, which works well in London cos they offer light bites/cakes/coffee which are all locally sourced and a quality fest, allows folks to meander and quaff. Not too sure that would work in Manchester or Newcastle mind where it’s a bit Pies n White Trainers 😆

Not too sure that would work in Manchester or Newcastle minds heretics a bit Pies n White Trainers

Soon find out I guess, the Manchester Rapha Cycle Club opens at the end of June (just off Deansgate/St Ann’s Square).

I’m a big fan of Roll for the Soul.

Decent food, cake and coffee, staffed workshop, nice atmosphere without being cycling exclusive and putting people off. Importantly, it has a licence so you have

the option to purchase a nice bottle of beer.

whilst watching

evening screenings of cycling related stuff/adventure films

.

It also has locks you can borrow if you’ve forgotten yours, and a solid looking vandal-resistant track pump concreted in outside.

Indeed. White Adidas only I hear.

But seriously, piss take apart, so long as it’s warm, foods good, some welcoming atmosphere and easy access to munchies it’ll be fine.

There’s a few successful models out there to amalgamate soooomthiiiing.

Best of luck, tell us where it is whydontcha …

Fancy coffee in little cups can go with the trendies and Rapha kit in some remote city. that might fit in with a themed café but who the hell would want one. Thats not a cyclists café. Who the hell wants to pay to go somewhere like that?

Maybe, but if I was running a business I’d be very happy to have one more like the Rapha cafe than some of the typical club-run cafes : )
If you’re going to have a bike cafe, make it a nice one with interesting stuff and good food. Take the Rapha clothing and name out of the Rapha cafe (sorry, cycle club) and that’s all it is, it just does the basics and the details well.
If I want good food and coffee there’s loads of choice and it really makes little odds if it’s a bike cafe, just a nice or convenient location and a suitable spot for the bikes. Cake and tea/coffee is the basics but it’s not what I’d go for, CBA with long mid-ride stops but it’s good to end a ride at a cafe and have proper food. ie food you can charge more for, a full meal. Doesn’t need to be a wide range, just good post-ride stuff. Maybe watch the TDF in the evening with your partner while having dinner (romantic no, fair compromise for many with July syndrome yes..)
It’s attracting a regular crowd more than once a Sunday that’s important and that will vary by area.
Edit, just thought of Pete’s Eats in Llanberis. Bunk-house upstairs for weekend trips. That’s a winner if the local riding is worth traveling for, if you could book a 6-bed bunk room and have a bike cafe for breakfast and dinner. Or use it as a stop-over for a long weekend ride.

^^ good shout Jameso.

It’s what I tried to convey.

Sounds brilliant wherever it is!

I like the racing idea but hard to implement.

Woodbine Cafe
OPA Llandegla
Coffeefix
Caffeine & Co
Polocini
The herb garden cafe
That one in Elton, not sure if it’s still open tho? Was close to closing a few years back not been that way since.

All good.

Not the cafe by Grindleford station, with it’s passive aggressive notes everywhere. No swaps.

I’ve seen your tweet retweeted by my cycling club so had my suspicions confirmed about where you’re thinking of. The thing that would sway it for me (and this is very much a personal thing rather than necessarily being typical) would be opening past 4pm on a sunday to stop in when we get back from club rides – things are usually closing down by the time we get back. I probably wouldn’t stop in mid ride as it’s more a start/finish point for me, but as a post ride refuel I might. i’d almost always stop at the bike shop for tubes etc if i was in the town anyway (opening times permitting). Weekday evenings with cycling on tv or other events might help me drag my OH away from eurosport and would probably be the most likely thing to get me through the door.

Show World Cup DH on your tellybox! That combined with ‘mazin coffee / a few good craft beers would get me through the door every time.

I quite like the roller racing/KOM screen malarkey, never mind the grumpies. Have you been to a Rollerpalooza night? It is FUN both as a spectator and extremely untalented participant.

Look Mum No Hands! in that London is the finest example of a cycling café I’ve been in. Good cake and coffee, little workshop, nice merchandise, convival atmosphere and full of interesting bicycle paraphernalia.

Genuine thanks for all the input chaps. Location is Otley. Premises requires some work/conversion.

Genuine thanks for all the input chaps. Location is Otley. Premises requires some work/conversion.

The new dunnies?

edit: n.b. if you do become the new dunnies, cyclists will be the least of your interests business wise.

Westmalle and little cubes of aged Gouda in a bowl.

Can you install a few cobbles outside too?

😀

Not the new Dunnies. Ain’t gonna be room for bikers, and far enough away to avoid the bank holiday clientelle. Hope is to give some of the cycling clientelle somewhere to go and to engage with the cycling community in a way that Dunnies didn’t. And the coffee will be better.

Well it would be hard to make worse coffee.. I think in otley you’ll have to be careful location-wise , but there can’t be many towns in the north with more passing cyclists. It’s a fairly conservative (small c) place thought so I’d not go too overboard on the biker theme. You could probably be the best cafe in town without really trying and if you ask Gareth at the deli in Menston, there’s a lot of repo pole around there who’ll plan their whole ride around a really good sandwich…

Provide tap water with the espresso in a largish glass. Cakes made with butter not the cheapest margarine. Be open on the day of the week everyone else is closed (our bit of Suffolk near work is shut on Monday, even bank holidays).
Most importantly never, ever run out of baked potatoes at a weekend.

Good food, good company, good location.
Look at the old coed y brenin caff.
It was a small shed of a thing but Dafydd and Sian turned it into a cult location with easy tasty food and Sian’s home made cakes.
The forest saw how much money they were making and wanted a piece of it. Dafydd and Sian told them to go away so the forest kicked them out hence that new cafe.

Big jugs of made up juice as free top ups for paying customers. Apple & black & orange.

Otley?

Well it’s not like there aren’t enough bikeeees there is it and it’s only 8 miles from the farm on a route I’ve done a few times..

Let us know when it’s done and I’ll pop on in.

Best of luck with it.

😀

Location is Otley.

loses interest

Big jugs

regains interest

All the coffee and cakes but most of all a friendly welcome.

The best cafes and restaurants I’ve used have been the ones where the visitor is greeted as they walk through the door. Even better if they are known and greeted by name.

Friendly.
Cake.
Somewhere round the back to stash the bike while I gorge myself.
Phone reception to call for rescue when I’ve eaten too much and can’t be bothered with the last two climbs. 🙂

All great ideas, but from the café owners perspective…..they sell you a coffee and cake for next to nothing whilst having to spend £200,000 upgrading the loo’s…

I’d rather have somewhere scruffy like Grindleford Cafe which welcomed my mud-splattered arse into the place than somewhere uber-smart.

However, I’m sure that most of the potential revenue would come from grannies or leisure walkers who would prefer somewhere more refined.

Bike beans in Ashtead is pretty nice, rides organised on Tuesday night and Sun morning plus friendly staff and good cake. Your bike locks up outside where you can see it and the food is wholesome and fillling.

However, I’m sure that most of the potential revenue would come from grannies or leisure walkers who would prefer somewhere more refined.

In otley* that market’s reasonably well catered for to be honest, coming up with somewhere that appeals to a slightly younger/more active clientele would probably be a good way to differentiate. You do have the problem of filling the cafe during the week though, maybe the OP needs to try to appeal to the yummy mummies coming over to use Waitrose.

*unless something’s changed in the last year since I left.

There’s a little cafe attached to the new/relocated bike shop on the A65 in Ilkley. Might be interesting for the OP to see how that’s faring. Certainly, the plan there must be to have more than one source of revenue.

You could make it a chic venue, 50’s French Riviera all sunglasses/tans/pretty dresses and “frankly Maam, I don’t give a damn” lookeeelikeee’s.
It’d fall in line with CupCake hell/heavan that’s all the rage ATM, by doing this StayAtHomeMum’s would flock sideways and fill your cafe during week days, then keep the chic and enter the greats of historic TdF/Belgian/Italian cycling heros at the weekend and… Voila!

Place is Full, you seel out in 5yrs and retire to Sunderland.

Don’t thank me 😆

I literally just found out about this place:

http://www.readingbicyclekitchen.org

I live in Reading and I’m going to be heading there for their opening on Saturday to Donate some parts and find out about volunteering.

This seems like the perfect sort of thing to my mind not just Cakes, Coffee and posing but also some actual community benefit, Reading is starting to feel more and more like a “Cycling City” (although still technically a town), I’m actually quite excited about it…

Very interesting sounding setup you have planned, russianbob. Having ridden a lot out north of Otley in the last few years, I would be very keen on checking out the finished product.

Bit cheeky, but if you’re ever in need of a polite twentysomething employee who knows his way around road & mtbs, appreciates good coffee and loves to bake, drop me an email.

Best of luck with everything.