Right up my alley! Veggie cafe in Nottingham

When I first started doing these blogs at the beginning of January 2009 a friend recommended that I should visit a hidden away café called alley café bar. Yesterday, after a long day out around Beeston and the Nottingham city centre, I called in about three in the afternoon for a drink. The alley café bar is situated in Cannon Court – off Long Row. There is a sign on the main street.

What a super little place! It was up a narrow set of stairs and was pretty full this Saturday afternoon. I had no choice but to sit at the bar with my pint of lager. Up to the left of me was a tiny little galley kitchen with glimpses of the industrious cooks and kitchen assistants. The whole atmosphere this afternoon was one of a continental style café in an attic. Along the back wall was a panoramic mirror and the long side wall had some good framed photos of nature subjects. The music was low key and chilled out.

I got talking to a man and woman next to me and explained that I was doing a blog about cafes and coffee houses and their ambiance. People watching too. They seemed really interested and had a quick look at a couple of my funny photos that I had taken today. They said that this place was one of their favourite places to be. I wrote this blogsite address for them on a taxi rank business card.

I left them to their newspaper reading and had a quick read of the alley café bar menu.

Amongst many other choices they serve are; and I quote from the menu:

Tempting Tempeh Burgers
Happy Hemp Burgers
Organic marinated Tofu Steaks
Black Bean & Mole Burritos.

A guy to the right of me was munching away on a colossal looking sandwich all of which have names at this charming place. You get a choice of bread from bagel/granary/French stick/ ciabatta/ tortilla wrap/100% rye. Now comes the interesting part of choosing your fillings. If you chose a smoked pesto, tofu and artichoke heart sandwich you would order a Mildred. An Ethel would get you cream cheese, avocado and pine nuts; a Bert would be brie, blueberry conserve and grapes. There are ten such choices on the menu and all of them come with salad and cost £4.45 presently.

There’s lots of other choices of veggie dishes and all very reasonably priced. Plus they have a pâte of the day and a soup of the day. I loved the little bunny motif on the salad selections part of the menu and the orange cat relaxing on the sofa.

I also liked their ethos of ‘creating an atmosphere that combines the style of a bar with the relaxed feel of a European café. They aim to provide imaginative vegetarian and vegan food without having a negative impact on the Earth.’

I had another friendly chat with a man who wanted to take the vacant stool next to me. Our chat was about film photography vs digital. Having my camera sat on the bar instigated this. This seemed a really convivial place. I finished my lager and took a few photos as I departed with permission from one of the staff. I’ll be back.