4.18 /// Reminiscing over 'my' cafe Nervosa...

Step back in time with me to the cozy corners of Rimini's, my own slice of Café Nervosa nostalgia, where every sip of mocha brewed stories and friendships that linger like the aroma of fresh coffee. As I recount the intimate connections that blossomed over the counter with Simon, Karen, and the familiar faces that became the backdrop of my daily ritual, you'll feel the warmth of a community that once gathered not just for a caffeine fix, but for the shared moments that turned a simple coffee shop into a sanctuary of memories.

Weighing the charm of local cafes against the convenience of coffee shop chains, this episode stirs up a blend of reminiscence and reflection. I'll take you through the bustling streets of towns like Crewe, where the personal touch of places like Rimini's is missed amid the efficiency of modern establishments. From busking for a cup of Joe to the fading tradition of made-to-order meals, join me as we explore the bittersweet evolution of our coffee culture and what it means for those of us yearning for the authenticity of a local café hangout.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Coffee Shop Memories and Connections
• 12:27 The Decline of Local Cafes

Transcript

Stephen: 0:00

Hello, welcome to Infinite Prattle, and today I'm going to talk about coffee shops. I know that sounds like a really boring subject, but I'm going to talk about a coffee shop that was very close to my heart back in the day. Back in the day, and if any Frasier fans are out there, I would call that place my Café Novosa. So let's talk about that. You're listening to infinite prattle with your host, steven. Thanks for joining me for unscripted, unedited everything. Oh, thank you very much for joining me today. Um, hang on, let me adjust my microphone because because I've not done this in a while, so I've got to make this error. If you can hear some patterning in the background as well, my dog's in the room with me today. He's a bit lonely. My wife's been away for a bit. She's away this week on holiday and she's been previously in hospital, so he's missing her. I think he's feeling a bit like he needs company all the time. At the moment he's, he's a bit, he is a bit of a stressy dog. I'm not, I'm not gonna lie, he's a bit of an anxiety dog. Uh, not for anxiety, he has anxiety. Um, yeah, I think. Um, yeah, I think he just needs a bit of company, so he's in the background. So, uh, if you hear any pattering or pattering or anything like that, it's my dog. So don't, don't worry, don't worry. Um, yeah, and yes, today, uh, hello, by the way, hello, if you should, if it's your first time joining. Uh, can you hear it? Stop scratching by the. My dog is a cross-jack, russell Dashound, or Jackson as some people call him, and he's lovely, a bit needy, as I say, a bit needy, yeah. So if you've never listened to the show today before today, should I say welcome, thank you very much for listening, and if you're a regular listener, thank you very much for that too. Yeah, so, as I said in the intro, I want to talk about a coffee shop that I used to go to a lot. I like coffee. I think if you're a regular listener to the show, you'll know that I enjoy a cup of coffee as well as Pepsi Max, not a sponsor yet. Come on, pepsi, come on, come on, just sponsor one episode. A tenner, a tenner. I hold on to that dream. I'm an ever optimist, like my dog, yeah, so in the program Frasier they used to always go into the same coffee shop, a bit like in Friends, they used to go to Central Perk Frasier, always going to the same coffee shop, a bit like in friends. They used to go to central perk frasia. It was cafe nervosa and um, I, I kind of like fell into a coffee shop thing like mid 2000s, um, like the the early part of the 2000s, like when I was saying mid 2000 being like the 2000s, 2010, so it's probably like, probably, probably when I moved into my own place, I think, starting a railway job, working on the train station and stuff, I used to get coffees from the discounted coffees. I started drinking lattes and stuff. I started becoming a thing in this country. I started drinking lattes and la-di-da.

Stephen: 3:26

When I moved on to my own, it was lonely, genuinely. That's probably the reason, if I'm honest with you. I used to go into town and mooch around. I started going to a coffee shop called Rimini's and that kind of became my cafe nervosa. I'd go there a few times a week. I probably looked like that wanker in the corner, looking like he was doing work or whatever, but I used to go in there and write song lyrics or just write my thoughts down and chat to the people who owned it and they're all. They're all amazing.

Stephen: 4:06

Uh, um, a couple of simon and karen, I think they were called. Pretty sure that was the names. Yes, it was. Oh, I'm doubting myself. Um, and the various like you know employees that they had over the years, and they were all amazing. They were all so, so, so nice and so much fun. And, um, I became like the regular customer, so it was kind of like I'd walk in and they were all amazing. They were all so, so, so nice and so much fun.

Stephen: 4:25

And, um, I became like the regular customer, so it was kind of like I'd walk in and they knew what I'd normally order, so they knew my regular drink, which used to be a mocha, to be honest. Mocha with cream, uh, probably really bad for me, to be honest, full of sugar, full of caffeine, full of fat and delicious, um, yeah, and I used to go in and pretty much order a coffee there, like at least three times a week, I would say, because I'd walk to work a lot of the time. I was a bit more healthy, to be honest. I used to do a bit more exercise. I only had a motorbike when I moved into my first house in 2004,. I only had a motorbike as a mode of transport. So I would never go out without my kit on. So it was kind of more of a ball lake to go and like warm a motorbike up, get all my leathers on, you know, and park, find parking, like sitting there in your gear, and if it's a warm day, um, I said to walk to work. So I used to walk to work quite a lot and um, so that's what I used to do. So I walked to work and um, and grab a coffee on the way, sometimes some lunch, and just make a bit of an event of it.

Stephen: 5:30

And, as I say, I was probably a little bit lonely, to be honest, and I used to go in there, you know, and I made friends with the proprietors and the coffee shop girls, because they were mainly girls. There was very rarely a male employee. I don't know if that's a demographic or that's just how they employed people, but yeah, we used to go in there and it was just really nice. And yeah, I used to say I used to just watch people mainly. That sounds a little creepy, but you know what I mean.

Stephen: 5:59

You go in a coffee shop and it was nice just to be surrounded by people. Not necessarily that I knew, so I didn't always have to engage in a conversation, but I was. I was with people, um, and the more I went in there, the more friendly I got with it, with the owners and, um, I think that's a bit. I think that's one of the things that's a bit soulless about, like Costa and Starbucks and a lot of these other big chains like Nero and stuff. But you know, if you're regular, you can you can get to know some of the people that work there, um, but they're all about turnover, I feel, and I suppose a small business wants that turnover as well. But then I think they're more about making a connection with you and I must admit, like there's a local castle that I go to, they have got used to my drink. Now I'll go in and I'll be like same as usual.

Stephen: 6:44

I always change what milk I have, though. Um, sometimes I have soy milk, sometimes I have like ordinary milk, sometimes that's for any milk, um, yeah, and I don't know what I call this skinny meal. I kind of hate that. Then what else? You call it skimmed, but skinny milk. They know what. They know what I mean.

Stephen: 7:04

Anyway, I feel like I'm breathing a lot today. I'm very breathy. They're coming through. I don't know what the ds are on. That's my mustache. Yeah, microphone. I don't know why I did that, sorry, probably triggering some listeners.

Stephen: 7:22

Um, it's been very well by the way he's doing, he's being very well behaved. Oh, he's not even in here. That's why I was gonna say wonder why I can't hear him, but he's. We've gone to lie in the bed, his normal default position. If, if, um, I'm in my room doing stuff, he now goes and lies on our bed and goes to sleep. Normally there's no touching the pillow. I think it must be like so he can smell us and relax. It's really cute. It's like a Bert slash coffee episode. Yeah, so coffee shops have kind of like always been a thing and I used to go between there and a place called Muff, called muffin break, which I don't know whether they exist anymore. They closed down in crew, where I'm from, and it was literally like a muffin shop. They sold cookies and I think they sold some sandwiches and stuff. But yeah, it was a bit of a chain place like um, millie's cookies kind of thing.

Stephen: 8:16

Um, and if my wife was here, she would, or if my wife was taking part in this podcast, she would mention coffee girls, coffee shop girls, because she thinks that I have a kind of thing of attracting coffee shop girls to me. She thinks that coffee shop girls find me attractive maybe not anymore, like I've widened a little bit and not as young as I used to be but she, I tell her stories of like going into the coffee shops and stuff, going to this one and blah, blah, and the girls would say they probably fancied you, and I'm like, no, they didn't. No, they didn't. It turns out I knew that one of them did, because she bumped into me years after the place closed. That was Riminis, my cafe nervosa, and she actually admitted that she fancied me for years and I was like what I was? Like that's really bizarre. So Sarah's kind of right. Anyway, that's not what this is about like my attractiveness, but it's kind of nice to know that though, isn't it? But I think she used to say this because she's so oblivious, she's kind of really polite and nice and engaging. But I think women find that attractive because you don't seem like you're after anything, which I wasn't, because I'm oblivious. I'm terrible with women.

Stephen: 9:23

There's a podcast going to come out. I have to address that at some point in a podcast and basically say how rubbish I am at. Oh, hang on, I need to turn the echo on for a second. So that's what you get when you rest your hand on the, when you rest your hand on the pads there. Yeah, never mind. Well, there you go, there's a bit of echo for you on that one. Yeah, I think with. Yeah, they're definitely going to. Yeah, my brain's so sketchy. Today I've had a few coffees and, ironically, my brain's a bit everywhere. But yeah, I think with the whole coffee shop thing, there's definitely going to be a future podcast on my obliviousness, the way I interact with women and the way I used to try to attract ladies. Let's say my failures, mainly failures, vast failures, but yeah, I used to love the atmosphere of women.

Stephen: 10:29

It came back on some sort of track and it was only a small place. It was in Frewtown Centre and it was like three rows of tables, maybe four or five tables, two little bay windows. There was comfy, three rows of tables like maybe four or five tables, like two little bay windows. There was like a comfy chairs in there and probably like five, six other tables. So it wasn't huge, had a toilet. If you want to know that, I did have a toilet. They did quite a range of sandwiches and toasters and stuff like that, and I like basic menus. I don't like too much stuff, but yeah, these little cakes and stuff.

Stephen: 11:05

One of my mates who's sadly no longer with us, but Bob, ex-rule Marine nearly my dad's age he was, I think he was a year or so younger than my dad Me and him used to go in there all the time, far too much, and sit and just worlds to write, chat about stuff, have a moot around the town, go back probably again for another coffee. Uh, probably spent a fortune in there, to be honest. But, um, because we went in so often, they used to give us a little bit of a sneaky discount every so often and that's kind of nice. You know, getting that like that kind of I was going to say notoriety, but that's not the right word is it that relationship where they appreciate you? Sometimes they'd be like you know you'd order a couple of sandwiches and you'd order two drinks and then they'd just only charge you for the sandwiches because you know, hello Bert, because you'd only you'd been in there for hours. Basically, we used to sit there for hours but we'd contribute and sit there without a drink. It was probably high as a kite on caffeine half the time. Yeah, it was just such a nice, nice place to be. You know, I got to know, got to know the people that were there, I got to know a bit about their lives. It was so nice.

Stephen: 12:27

I say I don't think you get that nowadays because, like Custer and Star Wars are just so busy all the time with people taking away. I think with Riminis it was literally sit-in. They did do takeaways but most people didn't take a takeaway. I think I only did that in years of going there. I think I did that once or twice, maybe on the way to work.

Stephen: 12:49

But yeah, these new places, they're all about turnover. They're kind of soulless. I do attend them, I do go to them. I'd love it if there was more local places. That's the best thing about Northern Ireland. They're going for chains. There are chain places like Costa, starbucks, nero's, all that sort of stuff, but in between on the high street there's so many more like local businesses or local chains of businesses you can frequent and that's so refreshing.

Stephen: 13:22

I feel like something we're missing in a lot of towns and cities in the UK. I mean, if you go somewhere that's like quite popular, like you know, a bit touristy, then you get places like that, but like in Crewe, not so much, unfortunately. Um, I kind of miss that. But I do still go to Costa and I'll take my laptop and I'll do a bit of writing and, um, I was used to laughing, scoff at people used to do that and think, oh, you're just showing off and stuff, but it is kind of a nice place to go. I kind of it does relax me. I kind of like being in like other people's company in some sense, but not having to talk to them. Um, it's the old walks of life, don't you like?

Stephen: 13:59

When I sit in the coffee shop, in in remedies, I used to, um, sit near one of the windows, and I never used to sit in the window seat, I used to sit on one of the two seaters, just stare out the window. So if there was no one interested in that day, um, I would just like stare out the window. So I'd sit there, headphones on sometimes and and just write or write down lyrics. Yeah, and when I used to busk as well, my target for busking. You talk about dream big. This is talk about dream to the level that you want to get to.

Stephen: 14:30

I used to busk in Crewtown Centre and Land Twitch as well, and the aim that I used to aim for was enough money to buy a coffee, which think at the time was like £2.60. £2.50 for a mocha with cream, which is cheap. If you think about how mucha equivalent would be now probably like £4.50 or something, so it's probably double the price. Um, yeah, so my, my target would be literally just to attain enough money to come buy a coffee and if we could buy a coffee and a sandwich, or buy coffee and a snack or a cake or something added bonus, um, and I used to. I used to busk outside, near, near eminence, um, and then go in with my, with the spoils of busking and spend it instantly.

Stephen: 15:13

But used to do um, and I like that. You know, I like that dynamic in my life at that time and it's probably something that, uh, I know I don't miss per se. I kind of miss the simpleness of like a local cafe, like that, rather than the busyness and soullessness of of like a corporate chain. I mean, I'm not saying that the people that work there are lovely, I mean the one at costra I go into in crew. I have got to know a couple of the girls and they're personable and they say they remember what I like and a couple of us, you know, a couple of them really have a bit of banter with me and a bit of a chat and, you know, find out about them and you find out what they're doing and their personal lives a little bit and that's kind of nice. But because their shops are a lot larger and there's a turnover of people, they never stop. They're never quiet enough normally to actually take their time with you, whereas somewhere like Remna's, because it was so small, even if they were busy, there was still enough time for them to come and chat to you and kind of make the rounds almost like a restaurant owner would do.

Stephen: 16:20

You've seen these gangster films where the Italian restaurant owner would come around and check if everyone's okay and basically play the host kind of thing. And that was kind of nice that you know. You kind of felt like that was your little place. I'm sure loads of people feel the same about this place and other places. That was my little escape and even after I bought a coffee machine for my house I used to still go there. Mom used to be like, well, you've got a false economy, you've bought an expensive coffee machine and you still go to the bloody coffee shop. I was like, well, yeah, why not? It was nice to go there, why wouldn't I?

Stephen: 17:00

In regards to modern coffee shops and such things, it's all pre-packaged sandwiches as well, isn't it? Like nothing's made fresh, whereas Rimin has made the fresh sandwiches. Again, that's very much like Ireland. You very rarely get anything that's pre-prepared in a fridge. If you go into like a local one, they they make them fresh and I think that was a nice thing as well. Like you're going to cost a starbucks, any of them, any chain, any shop, really modern modern day shop, everything's disposable, throw away pre-packaged and expensive as well.

Stephen: 17:36

Like we were in starbucks the other week and me and sarah we bought, bought coffee. Uh, we had a coffee each and she was. She likes, like chai lattes and you know the frappes and stuff like that. They're too sweet for me. I just like you know either a black coffee or a latte, so I think I'd like a small latte. She had like a small drink as well. I might have had a medium and I'm not sure and I shorted a toasty because I think her sugars are dropping. So I was like I'll buy you a toasty as well.

Stephen: 18:06

Not a toasty like, but it was like a small oval piece of bread like two, two pieces of bread with a filling. It was like cheese and ham toasty and it wasn't, wasn't very large slices of bread and it was like six quid for a toasty and like, when you think about it, like the pieces of bread, even if you say 10p each, which is a stretch, a bit of cheese, what? 30p for a bit of cheese? 30p max maybe for a bit of ham, and you're just thinking that sandwich probably cost like 70 or 80p at the most to make the most, even with the packaging, like what is it pence to put? You know it's probably like a penny to put the plastic wrap on like it's nothing, isn't it?

Stephen: 18:50

When, on an industrial level, and the charge is like it was like £5.95, I think it was, or £6.20, it was something like that. So these two coffees and these two drinks and this sandwich and I think it was, or £6.20, it was something like that. So these two coffees and these two drinks and this sandwich, and I think I had one of them, chocolate straw things came to nearly £20. I was like what the hell? I honestly couldn't believe it. I was shocked and I sound like a really old man. But yeah, it used to be like kind of a treat still to go out for a coffee. But it didn't bankrupt you and it's still a treat to go out for a coffee.

Stephen: 19:19

I probably do far too much of a mess with you. I probably could save so much money. Um, I need to, I need to curb that a little bit, but yeah, it's, it's expensive nowadays. It's expensive and I know, and it's not the same experience, it's not, it's not at all. Um, I need to find a new cafe in avosa, I think. I think if I lived in Ireland, I would have like five of them All in different places. I could probably think of five cafes in Northern Ireland now that I would probably visit on a regular basis that are all in different areas in Northern Ireland. So, yeah, so that's my little story.

Stephen: 19:52

It went a bit awry at one point. Well, all of it went awry. Actually, I think there was a point that I was trying to get to and I don't think I got to it. If I think of the point, if you think of the point, let me know. But have you ever had a place that you've gone it be a bar or somewhere that you just felt at home and it's been comfortable and you've enjoyed going there and it's been a place of musings, even because that's definitely what I used to do, definitely used to do, and it was probably part of my well-being. To be honest, for a time in my life that was new discovering things, living alone, being a bit lonely, trying to discover new relationships, growing as a person. It was very deep, and it probably was, if you think about it, if I think about it. Yeah, so let me know if you've ever had somewhere that you call home but it's a business establishment. You know what I mean. You know what I mean.

Stephen: 20:51

Thank you very much for listening everyone. If it's been your first time today, thank you for listening, thank you, and I hope you continue to listen. And my podcasts are never the same. They never some scroll around, some kind of stick to the subject matter, um, yeah, so go and check some more out, um, but before you decide, um, check out some of my uh, guest, guest, guest speaks where I have guests. Yes, thank you very much for listening. Take care of yourselves and until next time. Thanks for listening to Infinite Brattle with your host, stephen. Follow me on social networks at Infinite Prattle and don't forget to subscribe. Thanks very much.