London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

Gethumbwini.

Yes.

It's a fine, fine bean indeed.. Mind you, I could roll around naked in the Agoga at the moment..

Please, feel free.

MrSmyth ... I'm curious to know how did that latest shot go?

Just a quick note for commuters or those working in or near Clerkenwell:

Benugo, the cafe in the corner of Clerkenwell Road and St Johns road, is currently closed for redecoration and so they have a set up a little coffee van type thing for the duration selling decent coffee for just a pound a cup. I asked them about it and they said they were doing it virtually at cost (their words) in order to please their customer base during closure.

great move, very clever

^^Jolly good. There's also that new gaff on garys inn* road handing out tokens for a free coffee.
They do a mean sarnie too.

Further MORE - there's a place I saw that's only been recently open at the bottom of leather lane that looks pretty decent.

That said, there appears to be a trend in coffee joints at the moment for stark white walls, thick black wooden surfaces and minimalist seating. Both the Garys inn* and Leather lane venues look the same. (Kind of Fernandez and Wells on Beak Street approach)






*scobled

Finally making a change from having shit coffee locally apart from Full City (which is temperamental depending on how busy they are with bikes and who's steaming the milk, but when they get it right, they really do.)

Otherwise it's just fucking costa/pret/starbucks as far as you can see.

And LMNH of course but that's a bit further east for my mind.

http://www.caterersearch.com/Article...o-yourself.htm

A bit dated, but I had no idea what a piccolo was.

Had a cappuccino from Benugo this morning, with 5 sachets of white granulated sugar.

7/10

And polished concrete - cant forget that!

This minimalist shit can fuck right off.. I'm struggling to find a place where I can sit and enjoy a coffee with getting piles or snow blinded by the interior decoration.. Foxtrot and ginger is ok but still "cold".

good. filled basket, few clumps came out of grinder stirred with small hex key found on kitchen table, went easier on the tamp pressure than before, pour was even and a reasonable time.
crema was still gone by end of cup but a lot smoother citrus flavour and a dark chocolate but not overly bitter finish.
but the shot i just pulled was not so so good as it was obviously channeling but i think the dose was too low.

i'm getting there.

is it better than dose, modern pantry, brill, espresso room or bea's though?
spoiled for choice round there.

Pardon and Wood is the name of the new place on Gary's Inn* road.

Lovely food - but my first coffee from there about ten minutes ago was fucking rank.

I tried a 'Golden Heart' which I'd never heard of before.

Way to waste square mile beans guys.

Allegedly a 'medium' sized cup (fucking enormous) into which went a double shot of espresso which they dissolved golden syrup into. Then steamed some skimmed milk and poured in. The whole thing was sickly and sweet and something I'd expect at a naff chain store.

What's more, they charged me £2.75 for the honour, pushing my lunch spend to £7.65 - I am disappoint.





Food was very good. They have a lovely looking selection of cakes. I had a chicken salad with big chunks of decent chicken, nice sweet roasted vegetables and some perfectly OK pasta. Good dressing too. Perfect balance between tart and sweet.







*Scobled

I used to get doorstop sandwiches from The Larder until they stared skimping on fillings. Ham, brie, red onion and marinated mushrooms though, DELISH.

Spoiled for choice if you're prepared to have a twenty minute journey for a coffee..


Espresso room is a fifteen minute walk from Brill. Ten minutes from Bea's (which I've never been that impressed by) Modern Pantry is probably 20 minutes away from it.

All well and good for a one off, or even better to sit in. But no use to pop out for a quick and decent coffee to bring back to work unless you like iced latte.

where is your office?

Bought a stainless steel gaggia classic for £135 in really good condition. Picking it up tonight, I cant wait!

Laystall Street.

So.. 10 minutes to Espresso Rooms.
7 minutes to Bea's.
7 minute's to Brill (Very fond of this place)
4 minutes to Full City (Good and sometimes great coffee for £1)
15 minutes to LMNH
7 minutes to Modern Pantry
10 minutes to Dose


Otherwise it's just local little cafes which serve scalding hot milk/espresso based drinks or chain stores which serve limp, luke warm pints of milk with some espresso flavouring.


Not CRAZY far. But the point is that you'd have to drink it en-route which I hate (Drinking from shitty cups while walking. I invariably spill it down my shirt.)
If you wait to get back it's gone cold which is no fun.


When the rapha/nude pop-up was there it took 20 seconds which was just fine :)



Hence at the moment A - to save money and B - for the pleasure in the process, I use an aeropress at work with a cheap grinder and a tin of illy.

look out the window. that's me waving with one hand and pleasuring myself with the other.

gaggia baby-dose yours for £100, pop to espresso room for a bag of ground coffee.
coffee at your desk. sorted.

^^^^Nice work Jimm, if you don't like the cut of its jib I'll give it good home :)


Actually. No. I'm saving for a La Pavoni (no idea how capable a machine it is but I could sit and stare lovingly at it for hours.

anyone want to buy a coffee shop business in kings cross?

http://www.gumtree.com/london/92/65590692.html

Only £25000

you must be in panther house?
grim toilets in there

^^^^^ Look up at the window. That's me filming you with one hand and pleasuring myself with the other.

Haven't heard of any of those other than Modern Pantry! Oops.

My central point was that it's a quid. I'm drinking one right... now.

Tempting.

Worryingly tempting. Doesn't it need to be plumbed in?

no it's one of these:


not for sale just yet as i'm about to order some bits for it that were missing.
(drip tray cover, water tank lid and steam twisty nob)

<Puts thread on ignore before I spend any more money as just bought this. Second hand, but still>

Nope Yep Maybe

You gets new machine?

Very swanky ... are you shooting digital with it?

that's my old 'spare' machine currently residing in a studio i use a fair bit. it needs all it's missing plastic parts to make it salable. i have a classic at home.

I didn't realise you were using a Classic, I thought you had a Cubika or something. In that case you haz adjustable OPV. Fiddling with this will improve your shots no end.

How it's done

I can lend you a portafilter manometer to make it a proper job

v interested. Been meaning to get something for the studio for a while. Does it need plumbing?

When do you think you'll have the parts to sell it?

You can get good* espresso at Farm Shop on Cowcross Street.

*I'm no espresso expert, but it's better than what I've had at Full City (and I liked that).

Just fired up the classic for the 1st time. Managed a really nice shot with the 1st go, nice crema and I could really taste the citrusy flavours at the end. That was with the double sized basket. I then tried a single and failed.

Roughly how many ml should I expect from a single and how many for a double?

Single baskets are tricky blighters. Stick with the double.

Aim for 50 - 60ml from the double basket

The geekyness in this thread astounds and delights me. There's threads about guitars, excel, countless bike geekery, but this one blows them all out the water for sheer detail.
Serious business.

Nooo! No way geekier than the Excel thread.

No joy can come of excel.

Stupid question, if you do this mod to the Classic will you need to adjust your grind and tamp to suit??

You may need to coarsen your grind to suit the reduced pump pressure, but stay as you were for the first shot and see how it goes. You might find the flow to be slower but more even.

Thanks. Also, is steam pressure affected?

No, not at all, just brew pressure

Nice one, thanks for the info bombcup :0)

Does/has anyone have/had coffee at Fernandez & Wells on Beak Street near Oxford street~ish? I had a friend who used to work there and got free coffee occaisionally so always thought it was amazing. Just wondered what the "educated" thought of it!

Have you ever nailed a complex pivot?

Happy days.

As part of my job I have to analyse telephone bills- tens of thousands of calls to hundreds of destinations.

I have to extract destination, duration and cost. When I first discovered the pivot table it was an epiphany.