The Reach Bar and Kitchen

4 out of 5

A few weeks back my friend Lewis asked if I wanted to meet him at a local Bar (where his housemate bar tends) for a pre workout coffee. Having just started this blog I saw this as a fortuitous coincidence so eagerly agreed.

The Reach Bar is located in Gallions Reach (ohhhh I see what they did there) right on the water front. I know this goes against my usual zone 1 coffee shop rule but 1. There are no sprung floor gyms in central and 2. I like to make any stalkers I may have accrued work for it by mixing up my movements now and then.

The bar has a good solid wood traditional feel and a decent range of ales and lagers on tap which is an instant point in my books (no naughty! Focus on the coffee), luckily the chef wasn’t in as it was a bank holiday so I didn’t have the temptation of the (well reviewed) food colouring my opinion of the coffee. I plumped for a macchiato while Lewis opted for a mocha. While Lewis has a great many good qualities his taste buds have been corrupted to the point where his drink of choice is a Starbucks white chocolate Mocha so any opinion of his regarding coffee should be taken with the entire dead sea’s worth of salt. Nether the less he enjoyed his mocha so I guess if you have any toddlers or mad people with you then The Reach will also accommodate their incorrect beverage choices.

Anyway, the coffee was good, nicely rounded with the foam adding a subtle contrast to the strength of the espresso. I am looking forward to returning and getting some food and the lack of a heavy milk component would suit ending a meal.

Noble

4.5 out of  5

Greetings readers, apologies for the delay in your regular reading (oh god, 1 month in and I’ve already become one of those people who posts about how they haven’t posted). I have been rather busy as of late, jet-setting to Spain with work and then being brought crashing back to earth last weekend, spending the day being dropped into mud, tear-gassed and electrocuted. That’s the last time I leave the comfort of Zone 1….

I was all set to write some kind of ‘Froth Sloth on Tour’ post about a charming coffee shop on the south coast of Spain, but I guess we can’t always get what we want - there were no coffee shops in Estepona, unless you count the Irish pub who offered me a shot of coffee liqueur, which tasted of moonshine and Nescafe gold blend.

Instead, I picked a more local establishment, Noble espresso, a literal pop up (their marquee is spring-loaded), which wheels out an all-in-one bar counter with espresso machine, from their van every morning, setting up just outside Kings Cross. And Noble is good, in fact it’s great, they manage what an entire soulless mega corporation fails to do: make a decent cup of coffee with a menu that could be written on a stamp (a big-ish stamp, one of those ones you get at Christmas, but the point stands). Also, their Barista has a truly ludicrous moustache, which he pairs with thick rim glasses for the full +7 Hipster Coffee Buff Armour Set (that was a videogame reference for anyone whose parents never let them have a PlayStation).

My Italian friend approves of their espresso but was less enthused by their pastries - they aren’t made on site, which is fair when your venture packs into a van every evening. So my advice is: coffee good, best get your all-butter croissant fix elsewhere.