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Sarah Warden: City Spy
by Sarah Warden25/ 8/2005
LOOKING around Manchester city centre there's at least one sign
on every street confirming we are a nation of coffee lovers.
The recent phase of decent weather has seen coffee shops' outdoor
tables packed with people enjoying hot beverages throughout the day
in a way that looks very European.
I have always aspired to an Italian lifestyle of pavement espresso
consumption, as I imagine have most of my fellow caffeine addicts,
but I can't help feeling that something has gone horribly wrong -
and it's not just the fact that I'm resigned to my terribly British
preference for coffee with milk.
For a start, when I picture a bustling square somewhere in
continental Europe full of daytime coffee drinkers, I don't imagine
they are all supping effectively the same brew, prepared by
low-paid workers with a script and a set of instructions to achieve
a multinationally-decreed target taste.
When I walk out of my office onto Deansgate, I can see people
sipping coffee and chatting outside Starbucks across the
road.
If I reject that, it's less than two minutes to the next Starbucks.
And if I decide not to bother with that one, it's a mere hop and a
skip into St Ann's Square to sit outside another ... You've guessed
it.
If I chose to carry on along the road, I'd arrive at another
possible destination. Caffè Nero, which boasts on its website that
it is bringing the European coffee house experience to Britain - in
all of its 217 stores.
The same Caffè Nero served my drink the last time I sat outside in
my favourite spot watching children run through fountains in
Piccadilly Gardens next to the bus station. Which, incidentally, is
just a moment's walk from another Starbucks. And a Coffee
Republic.
Surely this isn't how it should be, especially not in Manchester,
the city of great independent entertainment. We are a leading
European city with great public spaces and a growing number of
people using the city centre to relax, yet our café culture
revolves around the coffee equivalents of the fast food
chains.
It's not as though there isn't an alternative available. We have
independent coffee shops and, sitting outside Love Saves the Day
near Deansgate station or on Oldham Street, you can enjoy a great
coffee and support a local business at the same time, as you can at
the Eighth Day or several other venues in the Northern
Quarter.
And I don't declare my tastebuds independent arbiters of quality,
but their favourite coffee in the city centre is the Fairtrade
latte from Suburb, in Deansgate - which is both cheaper and tastier
than the Starbucks version.
Walking around Manchester looking at, and drinking in, the various
coffee shops has made me more aware of how many of the chain
versions there are, and how different this city is from many of the
other great European destinations, where independently-owned venues
are where local people choose to congregate, relax and watch their
worlds go by.
From now on I will be trying to satisfy my caffeine addiction while
trying to steer clear of the larger chains. Being less inclined
towards multinationals makes me feel more international,
somehow.
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