Honey, I Shrunk The Coffee Shop!

Intimate, personal and friendly, small cafés offer an entirely different coffee experience. Phil Wain visits some of the best to find out how they work.

Are coffee shops getting smaller? Well, tiny coffee shops have always been a part of the speciality world. Early examples include The Espresso Room, Mother’s Milk and Taylor St’s Shoreditch Shed. But with rents rocketing, owners are looking for affordable sites and this has led to an increasing number of cafés opening in tiny spaces (as well as an increasing number within retail spaces).

Perhaps the ultimate example of the tiny coffee shop is Fitzrovia’s Alex Coffee, which attracts regulars for its exquisite design, its superb coffee and the interactive hospitality and customer bonhomie encouraged by close proximity. At places like Alex Coffee and Balance in Brixton, there’s a sense that the customer is special – you come away feeling you’ve had an individualised, personal experience which is more difficult in a larger space.