If you've ever wondered where all the yummy mummies in South Shields hang out, this is the place! What could be better than a nice cafe close to the primary school and with free parking just outside? I've had this one in my sights for a while and have hinted to a couple of friends that it would be good to try it, but no-one took the bait and so I had to go alone. Here goes...
First impressions, perhaps a bit off the beaten track, but good parking and a good trade too by the looks of things. When I arrived all the window tables and the sofas were taken and I had to sit at one of the tables near the counter. Not that that was a bad thing as it gave me chance to examine the menu and the clientele without being too obvious.
Mac 'n' Alli's is part cafe, part gift shop, part community hub. The menu is simple - they obviously concentrate on doing a few things well rather than lots of things indifferently. I chose a cup of tea and a slice of Brooklyn black-out cake (no, I hadn't either) and enjoyed every last sugary bit of it at my colourful table, sipping tea from my vintage mis-matched china. The gift shop bit does wellies, mugs with mottos, cards, fab patchwork upholstered armchairs and boasts its own knitted sign - really! - and vintage and upcycled bits and pieces adorn the walls (all for sale, I think). Community hub? Well the mummies use it as the village green, and there's a couple of shelves of paperback books labelled 'book swap' so the recycling idea is carried on from the gift section.
Would I go back? I would, and for the gifts as well as the coffee. It's definitely one to bear in mind for a treat with a friend. In fact while I was there in walked a friend of a friend and that same friend's cousin. No excuses from now on! If her cousin can go there, so can she!
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