NICE is a word that should never speak its name.
Parks are a good reflection of a city's health. The lack of good cafes with good food in the region's parks has been a symbol of civic malaise.
It is one of the great no-nos of the English language, disparaged by sundry teachers and tutors as a bland, nonsense little filler that lacks cojones. In-exact. Vague. A bit drippy and droopy.
That's wrong. Nice is a very, very exact word, maybe similar to simpatico in Spanish. It expresses a particular aspect of something pleasant. Pleasant in a way that isn't about passion or enthusiasm, maybe a shade under 'good' but more than 'average'. Something comfortable. It describes something that raises the corners of the mouth a smidgin.
Nice is a very useful word. And very English.
Big rustic table in Caffeine & Co
Caffeine & Co in Longford Park, Stretford, is a perfect example of the agreeable qualities of the word. It's a nice place.
Under the spreading broadleaf trees, in an Edwardian (I'm guessing) one storey building, adjacent to the play area and over from the Pets Corner, it makes you smile.
Parents, kids, couples, pensioners and other gentlefolk park their prams, bikes, dogs and loll on the picnic benches (it needs at least five more of these) or inside the folksily decorated building.
There are wraps and sandwiches and soups, shakes and cakes and teas. The homemade orange and marmalade cake on our visit was a beauty. A hastily put together bagel less good, although most reports we've had of the food compliment it.
And then there is the coffee which rockets way above nice to bloody fantastic. We've already written about the original Caffeine & Co in the city centre on Confidential. The flat white in the Longford Park sister venue is just as good, the other coffees are too. The coffees come from the Square Mile Coffee Roasters by the way.
A spread of coffee, cake and tea with the milk in a little bottle
Open from 10am-5pm every weekend, this place provides a caffeine pick-me-up with nature thrown-in; sadly unusual in Greater Manchester.
Parks are a good reflection of a city's health. The lack of good cafes with good food in the region's parks has been a symbol of civic malaise. That has not been nice. In the slightest.
The Longford Park initiative could be a model for others. Here's hoping.
Not that this is all about parks.
Confidential is particularly looking forward to the next Caffeine & Co outlet which will open on the ground floor of Quay House, our building, later this later. I'm going to get a fireman's pole and slide right in from the second floor to pick up a java.
Nice.
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ALL SCORED CONFIDENTIAL REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY THE MAGAZINE.
Caffeine& Co in Longford Park, Longford Park, Stretford
Rating: 14.5/20 (remember venues are rated against the best examples of their type - see yellow box below)
Food/ Tea/ Coffee: 7.5/10 (coffee 8.5, tea 8, cake 8, bagel 6)
Service: 3/5
Ambience: 4/5
Through the arched window
Under the leaves and in the trees with an ice cream van as well
Sweet interior - 'nice'
