Workshop Coffee
Poky.
Usually used in a negative manner, it is often used to describe rather small ventures.
A better word that estate agents, those fiendish geniuses of double meaning (other choice words are best not used in a public space), use is cosy.
In defence of the small footprint of a central London cafe, rent is expensive. It is perhaps something that is worth paying for if you are hawking wares in the 4 digit range but when you are instead limited to single digit values, a large patio or exhibition space is out of the question. Especially when you are just around the corner from Selfridges and within quick striking distance of Oxford Street.
However, they have hit on the way to maximise working spaces and while doing so, come up with an apt name. There is a workshop, running the entire length of the shop and a single row of benches with small, narrow tables to rest your coffee on. Hence why it is imaginatively called, Workshop Coffee.
Given as this review is just about one dish, I thought it would be best to beef up my review with perhaps more lengthy comments about other things, such as the clientele. While waiting for my coffee from the benches, I noticed that there seemed to be a constant stream of people popping in for a coffee. Things happened so fast as their average length of stay seemed to be 10 minutes or so. I thought this strange given that in other coffee places I had known, people would appear and while away the time with their iBook and iPhone in play. Yet, perhaps this more rapid visit was telling of another secret here.
People come here mainly for the coffee. In which case, it’d better be good then.
Latte. There is latte art and there is latte art. Creamy with welcome depths of smooth coffee, this is one coffee that I can almost drink without sugar. It is quite good and the icing on top is when it is so obviously prepared with love.
Although some may refer to the recycled wood tables and the aisle seating with dismay, I instead see it as a sign of quality. Workshop Coffee is so confident in the quality of their drink, that they do not waste time in frivolous trappings such as plush seating, expensive furniture or pretentious decorative ornaments. Instead, all effort goes towards the coffee. So I think I’ll call it cosy and leave it at that.
A quiet eating 8/10.
A coffee was GBP3.40 excluding service.
1 Barrett St, Marylebone,
London W1U 1AX