Quarter Horse Coffee

The Quarter Horse Coffee1 shop is an odd one. Located on the Bristol Street road which is on the Queensway dual carriage way through Birmingham.

I say odd because it is slightly out of the city and not the place normally connected to Indie Coffee shops. No footfall of office or shop workers. And another odd thing is that they have their own roaster on the premises. I guess it must get hot in the summer months when that thing gets going.

Now I have not had a coffee there as I am suffering a bout if insomnia. As it was about three pm when I got there I had a Chai Latte. It was perhaps the best chai latte I have had in a long time but I cannot tell you what the coffee is like. I will add an addendum to this post when I have had chance to get one.

The plus side with it not being in the city centre is coffee shop was nice and airy. I sat at a simple wooden bench at a simple wooden table. If I had to use one word I would use the word ‘Minimal’. White walls, high ceiling and plenty of windows lead to it feeling spacious. Calm and quiet which is very nice to write in. One down side is the table where I sat rocked slightly. Quite nice all around though.

A side note that Quarter Horse Coffee was originally opened in oxford. When looking to expand they decided on Birmingham and to have enough space for their roaster. Which might explain the location.

SixEight Kafé

As I write this I am currently enjoying a nice latte at sixeight Kafé.

It is located near Pigeon Park (Or St Philip’s Cathedral of Birmingham. located on Colmore Row. I have no idea why it is called Pigeon Park). It is just behind House of Fraser on Temple Row by the Grand Western Arcade.

Not that I say this lightly but it has some of the best coffee in Birmingham City Centre, which no small feat. What I like about it is there is a consistency to the coffee that I do not get in other coffee shops. One of the reason I avoid the High Street chains is whether you get good coffee can change from person to person. I used to like the coffee from Nero’s in the Bullring but the person who made coffee left and since then the coffee has not been as good.

But my favourite bit about sixeight kafé is the large basement underneath or the speak-easy style as they call it. It is nice and cool which nice on a hot day like this. It is also very quiet as well which is very good for writing. They also have a great selection of local sourced cakes.

The only down side is they don’t take ApplePay/AndroidPay but take contactless payment but with a 25p surcharge. It still on par with the High Street chains for a coffee & cake so I am happy to pay for the much better atmosphere.

If I was going to try hosting a writers group, I would do it here.

Cheers Peeps

Ad