Good morning, World! And ... happy Thursday, I suppose! But no, the wrong guess, I am not sitting in a newly discovered coffee shop, that I accidentally found this morning on my walk. Better try to imagine me sitting at home, with my own cup of coffee at my desk, thinking back to Sunday. Because that was the day I found a new coffee shop.
Last Sunday started early, catching a delayed 8.15 am train to head to Manchester. My boyfriend fancied a trip and since we've only seen Manchester during lockdown and with the most horrible weather we could get, I thought it was a nice idea and booked the tickets.
This time the sun showed up, there was no rain, just a lot of wind. You might think, that by now we should be used to that from living here in Liverpool, but we are not! We wandered around Deansgate, Castlefield and after a good hour I knew I had massive blisters from my Dr Martens and my feet started to hurt. Perfect timing for a coffee break and breakfast, since we hadn't eaten since we woke up and it was almost ten o'clock.
The area we were in looked very residential and asleep, so we started googling coffee shops nearby. I usually prefer to wander around, but with my feet hurting, I preferred any closeby shop. Sadly, Google wasn't very helpful. Guiding us to a takeaway shop, then one that was full and we would need to wait thirty minutes to get a seat and another one which was closed. So, Google was not the answer.
My hopes disappeared and we kept on walking into Salford and then a sign appeared in front of us. A sign, that screamed for coffee. Big glass windows allowed us a sneak peek inside and before I knew it, I was standing at the till of Procaffeinated asking for a menu and grabbing a seat.
While my boyfriend studied the menu, looking out for his regular Egg Royale, I took in the atmosphere of this accidental discovery. The place is part of a residential building facing the main street. Big windows in the front of the shop, a very industrial setting with a high ceiling. Square wooden tables and seats are on the one side and some window seats look out on the busy main streets. Plants hang down from the ceiling and pictures from artists are on the wall, which bring a nice touch to the shop.
When it was my turn to look at the menu, I was torn between the smashed avocado with their speciality signature sauce and the granola bowl. In the end, I went for the avocado. How could it be any different!😜 I went back to the till to order our drinks and food and I was also very tempted to buy a piece of banana bread, which was displayed on the till, next to all the sourdough bread that was on offer to buy.
I resisted, went back to the table and shortly after, the two oat lattes were served in handmade cups on a wooden board and you could feel the love that had gone into the way they present their coffee. I was immediately excited. There was a small peg on the tiny handle of the cup, which indicated which coffee we had chosen and I was glad to spot an Oatly box, so I was a hundred per cent sure to love this coffee.
A few moments later the food was served, again on their handmade plates and it looked delicious! I couldn't wait to tuck in! The first bite blew me away, it was so good! The bread was crunchy and obviously freshly made, the avocado had the perfect amount of spice and the eggs were soft, perfect poached eggs. Not to mention, how tasty it all was combined with their signature spice sauce.
My boyfriend loved his self-combined egg royale as well, we just simply ordered sourdough toast, salmon and poached eggs and voila, here was his dish.
Once we finished eating, we decided to buy a sourdough loaf and as a bread-lover, you might guess that we broke off pieces as soon as we paid for it and left. 😁 As simple as it sounds, but freshly baked, warm, soft bread with a crunchy crust beats just anything! We kept enjoying the bread at home for the following two days, it stayed fresh and tasty and Procaffeinated will be on our visiting list whenever we get back to Manchester.