Thursday 18 June 2015

Cafe Review 4 - Olomouc - Jazz Fresh and Love Coffee

Introduction
As you know this blog has always been a place for me to experiment and explore my writing talents. I've written ghost stories, gangster stories crime, and crime noir as well as my normal rompy stories.  Something I have never tried is to write creative non-fiction, until now. This week, to celebrate the launch of my new blog - Czech Hipster Coffee - I am publishing my cafe reviews here. 
Over the last few months I have been exploring the hipster coffee hangouts in Prague and I thought I would write a short blog reflecting on my experiences by writing non-reviews. Non-reviews don't focus on the wares on offer but try to describe the atmosphere and ambiance of the place. For the background to these reviews click herePlease let me know your thoughts on the new blog via the usual channels. Thank you.

Today we take a day trip out of Prague and visit two cafes in Olomouc. 

Jazz Fresh
These legs need a shave. 
Can you find hipster coffee in Olomouc? That was my challenge.  Well challenge accepted and achieved. The coffee revolution is spreading and its tentacles are moving across the Czech Republic to be found even in its most far flung outposts. Jazz Fresh café is a sweet little place near the Metropol cinema in Olomouc, the walls are covered with quirky pictures that look like Monty Python paid a visit while high on hipster coffee. Predictably soft jazz music fills the air and the place bustles with energy.  
Jazz Fresh is so obviously a hipster café it would fit right into the Vinohradska / Karlin scene. All the signs are there; the bearded Baristas in shorts, the macaroons in the cool counter and the quirky tables with moustache shaped legs. But like a very camp man who hasn't yet come out, it tries to pretend it’s not hipster. It's still in the hipster closet, giving hints, but not quite ready to declare its hipstuality to the world. What do I mean? Well you wouldn’t know they do filter coffee unless you ask, 
Forgot to take a photo
before I drank the coffee. 
there’s not a Macbook in sight and beards are few and far between, although the one that was seen was mighty impressive. Maybe the masses of Moravia are not ready for full on hipster yet. Maybe they need time to get used to the idea that coffee doesn't have to be roasted to within an inch of its life to be drinkable. 
It’s interesting watching the customers come in, it is like they sense there is something different, it’s not a normal café but they can’t quite put their finger on why not. They look slightly perturbed but don’t know why. They look around to see if the room is slanting or the walls are slowly moving in on them but everything is fine, the staff reassure them with a smile and they drink their espressos and cappuccinos in an uneasy peace.
For the website of the cafe visit here

Love Coffee
Wine Glass coffee,
wonderful nose.
In Olomouc? Love coffee? Just discovered your train is running late? Forget the nasty generic Mr Baker type places on Olomouc Hlavni Nadrazi and head across the road to Love Coffee; you won’t be disappointed. 

Which came first the hipster or the bean? I get the feeling in many of the cafes I’ve non-reviewed they are preaching to the converted. The places haven’t been set up by some evangelical coffee purists but have been established by opportunist capitalists in order to win the hard-inherited buck of the coffee loving hipster. The  very people who already know all about the coffee revolution and are probably already thinking hipster coffee has become too mainstream and are looking around for something else. Love Coffee is different. There’s nothing hipster about Love Coffee and you get the feeling that hipsters would turn their noses up at the place, thinking it was not fit to touch the lead of their Macbook. 
The café is in the style of the owner, a bubbly blonde called Eva, who oozes enthusiasm. The seats are covered in colourful pop art cartoon faces 
Groovy baby
and the cakes in the cold counter are just as colourful. Eva is a coffee enthusiast whose sole mission is to educate the taste bud of the coffee drinking people of Olomouc.  She was thrilled when I ordered a drip coffee without prompting.She didn’t seem to care if her clientele were hirsute, tattooed students, or old ladies with walking sticks she listens to their orders and then asks them to try the filter coffee. Interestingly the coffee was served in a wine glass which seemed just a quirky gimmick (can you have an unquirky gimmick?) but it meant you could really appreciate the nose of the coffee.  
This isn’t a place for your discerning hipster, but if you suffer from pogonophobia, tatouazophobia or malusdomesticphobia and you fancy a filter coffee, check it out.
For the website of the cafe visit here

If you enjoyed these reviews, and you would like a story to go with your coffee, please check out my short story blog here and my story inspired by hipster coffee here.



Return to the main menu hereIf you visit this cafe on my recommendation, please tell them why you came and if you enjoyed this blog please share it with your friends. 


2 comments:

  1. pogonophobia :-)

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  2. Petra Goláňová19 June 2015 at 20:48

    I like these lines:
    ..the walls are covered with quirky pictures that look like Monty Python paid a visit while high on hipster coffee.
    But like a very camp man who hasn't yet come out, it tries to pretend it’s not hipster. It's still in the hipster closet, giving hints, but not quite ready to declare its hipstuality to the world.
    The places haven’t been set up by some evangelical coffee purists but have been established by opportunist capitalists in order to win the hard-inherited buck of the coffee loving hipster.
    ..thinking hipster coffee ..
    ..if you suffer from pogonophobia, tatouazophobia or malusdomesticphobia and you fancy a filter coffee, check it out.

    ReplyDelete