Society Café – a new high quality coffee house in Bath – Grinding soon on Kingsmead Square!
Inspired by the quest for high-quality coffee, professional and friendly service and a creative atmosphere, we decided to open our own coffee house, Society Café.
Always geekily passionate about food, drink, design, art, architecture and customer experience, we are inspired by the new wave of independent artisan coffee shops coming out of Australia and New Zealand.
Jane started out as a glorified vegetable peeler for Marco Pierre White and then went onto travel around the world working with Ferrari, catering for the Formula 1 team. My first Saturday job at the age of 12 (is that even legal?!) was washing up in a tea room in Halifax. Both madly keen about the industry, we were hooked by the deep sense of satisfaction of enhancing someone’s day.
We met when I was running one of Hong Kong’s top restaurants and Jane was zooming around the world with the Grand Prix.
In 2000 we bought the Dial House Hotel in the Cotswolds together which went on to win many awards including the coveted Which? Hotel of the Year in 2005.
We sold the Dial House in January 2008 and moved to Morocco for an adventure whilst the children were still young enough to move around but old enough to appreciate the experience.
We were approached to run the Branson Hotel, RIad El Fenn, in Marrakech, which we did for 2 years and had an absolute blast before moving back to beautiful Bath.
Why Bath? It is serenely beautiful, packed with culture and diversity and has great all year round trade. We love it!
Our philosophy at Society Café isn’t complicated – we aren’t re-inventing the wheel! The obvious things such as ground-to-order superb coffee, loose leaf teas, bespoke hot chocolate (made from chunks of the real thing!) fresh juices and freshly made pastries, cakes and sandwiches are a given but we feel there is room for a coffee house with a slightly different take on things.
A place to park your bike, buggy, dog… a selection of cool magazines and coffee table books to flick through….a creative area for children downstairs….lots of truly comfortable well-spaced seating….strong free wifi with plug points for lap tops and smartphone chargers….in short we hope to offer Bathonians and it’s visitors all that they would wish for in a coffee shop.
We are also getting involved with Bath Art College, local schools and individuals working with them to create a unique space where creatives can display their work – some are even going to be carrying out their work on site.
‘Society’ – individuals creating their own sense of community a kind of ‘friendly association’ where everyone is welcome is the idea behind it.
Society Café is lucky enough to have a fabulous setting for our outdoor seating on Kingsmead Square where the timeless pleasure of people-watching can be indulged over a perfectly-prepared flat white and slice of sticky ginger cake.
Grinding soon on Kingsmead Square – we are hoping for a mid-March opening…
