Flat Caps cafe at Elula, Ridley Place

Finally got to this one after nearly a year of trying!  I'd seen advertisements for it right at the beginning but it kind of slipped down the list.  Then Wombat and Hamster suggested it again, but it isn't open on a Sunday which is our best meeting up day.  Then Polyglot spotted it, but was put off by the new age-y look of the shop.  So in the end I decided to go it alone and blazed in on the cusp of lunchtime before I lost my nerve.
Actually, the shop isn't that bad (and I will make time to explore it more thoroughly with Christmas presents in mind) and the cafe is, well, different - let me explain.

From what I'd read and seen, I'd imagined a largeish, stainless steel ultra modern outfit, maybe too posh for the likes of me.  What greeted me at the bottom of the industrial spiral staircase, was a cosy, homely space.  The tongue and groove wall cladding was painted a bright bottle green, an upholstered bench ran round the walls with the upholstery taken up the walls in circle and leaf patterns.  There were comfy cushions too.  Blue and cream tiles on the floor had me in mind of a ludo board, and the whole thing I decided at last made me think of a gypsy caravan.  I sat at a table with the name Maxine on a brass plate, other tables had other names (why?), and because the cafe is square I could look across to the business meeting in the far corner, the two groups of friends chatting, the visitor clutching his tourist map of the city centre, the girl curled up on the bench scribbling in a notebook (the next J K Rowling perhaps?).  All the while new age music played from the shop above, but it was quite relaxing.

As you would expect from an award-winning barista, the coffee was good, my latte was served with a neat little pattern in the foam.  And they served fudge!  Yes, alongside the scones and cakes you could buy a whole or half a bar of fudge!  I had half of vanilla honeycomb and it was fab.

So, this week's lesson is never judge a cafe by its advertising. Without a visit I would never have known what it was really like - very much in the spirit of the blog, really.  I may not be out in the Amazon but I'm finding myself in Newcastle cafe by cafe.