To think if you put your style choices above customer comfort your business is going to fail?

[BluthsFrozenBananas]

It’s a tough market right now, so why do new businesses, especially restaurants and cafes, do this?

I went to a new cafe in town yesterday with DH and DD. It’s been open a couple of weeks and what I assume where the owners were in there, three rather earnest hipsterish blokes. The food was pretty good and a decent price, but the style choices that had been made ensured I’d probably never go back.

All hot drinks were served in tin mugs, my tea caused the mug to heat up so much the handle was too hot to hold and the rim burnt my lips. I asked for a china mug, to be told they only had tin ones, but they’d make me another tea. So I got a second tea pot full of Luke warm water, which wasn’t hot enough to actually brew the tea properly.

Alongside this the tables were very small and designed with legs shaped liked an inverted v. This meant that the tops of the table legs dug into the thighs of any adult sitting at them. I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t got the thinnest of legs, but looking around the cafe I could see most of the adults were either sitting awkwardly far from the tables or had pulled their chairs around to the corner of the table so they could sit in comfort.

On the way out one of the earnest hipsters asked me if I’d be coming back, I told him I would if they got some china mugs, he gave me a look. I’m not going to take to trip advisor and slag the place off, but I probably won’t bother to go back either.

It was the similar with the posh burger place which opened up near me, and recently closed. Although with them it was the menu which was the issue. They had lots of fancy pants and frankly odd burgers on their menu, but not a single plain one. The plainest was bacon and cheese, and the only way to get a plain burger was to ask for bacon and cheese without the bacon and cheese, but you were still paying for them.

TLDR, hipsterish notions aren’t great for long term business success.

At the risk of causing mayhem on the Severn Bridge, you all need to get yourselves to Chepstow for a lovely cup of tea at my favourite tea room.

I agree, there's a lovely old pub near me, which has recently been done over in modern stylie. The floors look great, all polished wood, and they have taken most of the interior walls down, and just left the oak beams there.

Trouble is... it is open plan. It was built 500+ years ago, and the rooms were small and had thick walls for a reason. In more recent centuries, the carpets and thick curtains were there for the same reason. Ancient buildings are cold and draughty.

Lovely food, great staff and decent service, but I don't want to sit there in my coat. Nor do I want freezing ankles, where the draught whistles round them every time someone opens the door.

I hate the local costa. It takes the best part of ten minutes for a coffee to get made. The indie in the indoor market looks a bit poncy, but they can whip up a tasty brew and a biscuit in record time.

I hate the acustics in most modern style places with hard surfaces; loud, echoey and jarring.

Earlier this year we had a family meal at "naice" pub. It was mind numbingly boring because conversation was drowned out by the music that was apparently as quiet as they could possibly have it I ended up eating the bland over-priced roast feeling pretty sulky about the whole experience.

People go to places like pubs/ restaurants/ cafes to socialise, not to damage their hearing and have to ignore the people they were attempting to socialise with

Similar type of coffee place near me OP. Stainless steel stools instead of comfy chairs, and food served on cardboard. Very odd.

Thanks disappointed.

It used to be one of my "what I'd do if I won the lottery/had an unexpected huge inheritance" thing.

Except I wouldn't stay here I'd move back to my adopted home town - lots more competition though for me there as they already have a lot of places like this but they're very successful. I used to work waitressing in them at weekends/school holidays. One of the happiest times in my life despite the shit pay, I loved the customers and got on really well with colleagues and bosses - to the point over 30 years later we're still in touch.

Its interesting to read all these tales of eating out,coffee shops etc.
But have seen on TV, showing these so called hipster places,and some so called up market restaurants, that are quite awful,. I personally don't eat out these days, or even buy a drink anywhere.

But it has reminded me of place I used to frequent, many many years ago. up in the Midlands. There was a little cafe, right next to the open market in the town.. The customers were the shopping folks, and also the market traders.. There were enough tables and chairs in there,even though it was a smallest cafe.The windows were usually all steamed up.the tables were clattery formica stuff. Tea and coffee,were served in largish cups with saucers, and the food was lovely. They did lovely burgers, and toasted baps or sandwiches, with anything you wanted on them.

Most of the market traders had ordered their food, to take out to their stalls especially in Winter, so there was never any waiting about for food for the shoppers etc.

But mostly I loved that place, because of the type of people who went in, Just very down to earth people, who would always want to chat, about anything and everything.. Pensioners were my favourite people in there, always had plenty of good stories to tell you whilst drinking there strong brews.and eating a sausage ,bacon and egg BAP.

'Nowadays it is such a find to get a decent pot of tea WITH a pot of hot water to make an extra cup. It is like hitting the jackpot!'

Still the norm where I am in North Yorkshire, but then, chintzy teashops are still common. I can quite see why a young person might look at the chintzy teashops and mock the decor and the flowery china cups and think there must be a market for something more up to date. But if they are wise they will observe that many of the teashops also do excellent coffee so they can't rely on that to bring people in.

I love a chintzy teashop. Would much rather sit in a comfortable tea shop with a proper pot of hot tea, than on a hipster swing, or a too tiny chair, or drink out of a baked bean tin - some of these stories beggar belief. Funny reading though

Our food came on cardboard once! I'd forgotten that particular piece of nonsense.

I hope the owners realised you shouldn't recycle it.

14all I was in a similar type place (but in Spain!) this year. Really lovely.

Getting harder to find.

I don’t know why but rural Wales seems to have lots of chintzy cafes which are like those 30 years ago and do things properly. Hopefully Hipsters will never find them

YUp, coffee served at precisely 78 degrees so the flavour isn’t damaged (I.e. too cold!), folding wooden chairs that you feel might collapse underneath you, granola and yoghurt served in jam jars, scones and cakes in baskets on counters, uncovered, so that people can sneeze on them, children can maul them and flies can crawl on them. Incredibly slow service while baristas with man buns and long aprons chat about the ‘amazing gig’ they went to last night.

Give me the local greasy spoon for a bacon butty and a mug of hot, strong milky coffee, or the ‘granny cafe’ for a lovely cuppa and a proper slice of cake.

If only I were tech savvy I'd start an alternative recommendations site : DecentCuppaAndABap.com!

We had a lovely local indie cafe run by a great lady, loads of homemade cakes and biscuits that changed daily, nice salads and sandwiches not the fastest service for lunch but not too slow, customers were mainly Mum's and older people going for coffee and cake, stared doing breakfasts and 'proper' hot lunches (burgers etc)hipster employee took it over, hardly any cakes or biscuits available, lunch menu changed and then took the bizarre decision to not cook hot food as customers didn't like the smell of food cooking, so no breakfasts etc. a few months later as the places got quieter and quieter they decided that in fact cooked food was a good idea, then it became a hipster burger place that didn't work as Mum's and older people just wanted a nice bit of cake and a coffee ! it closed and is now a micro brewery (with about 6 tables and uncomfy chairs ).

We went to a military Victory dinner on Saturday. Men in mess kit and spurs, women in long frocks, five courses, three crystal wine glasses at each place setting, candles in silver candelabra - the coffee was served in tin mugs. Admittedly customised commemorative ones, but still tin mugs.

I'd forgive it after five courses!

Ooh Raglan you've just reminded me that I had to get DS1's hair cut on a Sunday once and the only place open was the super hipster men's barber place full of stickers, nerdy memorabilia, and all the stylists had full beards, undercuts, wearing dungarees or braces with denim shorts and tattoos. The cut was £££ and took absolutely forever because two of the guys kept stopping and stepping away from their clients to tell the third guy (and all the rest of us) about some totally awesome and mind blowing gig they had all been to. DS was very wriggly after 45 minutes of talk about hipster bands! The cut looked ok when we left the shop but was absolutely impossible to maintain and needed wax or gel every morning to make it stay to one side which he refused to submit to.

We got it fixed the next weekend by a totally no-nonsense Polish barber, no hipster atmosphere but a straightforward boy's cut took 5 mins, £8 and a lolly at the end!

I think you may be right. Hipsters may go to a trendy place for a short while but if it's that uncomfortable they'll take their custom elsewhere, if they have any sense. Surely only wanky twits are happy in a wanky twit environment?

My favourite place to go for lunch is a pub in the village DH grew up in. It’s a proper pub, with horse brasses on the walls, dark brown tables and comfortable upholstered chairs. The food isn’t gastro, it’s just good pub grub. The meat comes from the local butcher but they don’t bang on about it, things like pies and curries are homemade and they have a couple of vegan dishes on the menu not because it’s trendy but because they know there’s a demand for them. If they ever get taken over by someone who guts the place until it’s cold and echos, fills it full of reclaimed furniture and starts selling food using words like sourced and curated I think I might cry.

Also, don't slag off the previous management in your publicity. I recently looked up a (non-chain) hotel I stayed at some years ago, with a vague idea of taking a weekend break.

Yes, it was dated then, but the lounge was wonderfully Victorian and cosy, with floral wallpaper and carpet, a big mirror with an elaborate curly frame, and chairs and couches you could really sink into. And on my previous stay I arrived on a Friday evening and the manageress offered me tea and sandwiches.

The two trendy blokes who now own it were massively sneery on their website about what it was like when they took it over. And they don't know how to use an apostrophe.

The most pretentious cup of tea I've ever had served to me. And it cost about £4.

That was in a cramped little cafe furnished with picnic benches, and bare pipework exposed everywhere like in an old school basement.

The cafe local to our primary school has been taken over by hipsters recently. Nothing too overt, so my friend and I ducked in there after drop off today.

We should have known when we saw the new aprons. Thick Lithuanian linen (or somesuch), with real leather straps. Handy, when you need to wash them every day, huh?

I was warned off the chai I was ordering, as it was ‘fairly intense for most people’. Clearly beyond my middle-aged mum capabilities. I took my life in my hands and insisted. It was bog standard chai. Should add I was offered FIVE kinds of milk to have it made with. Should have requested vegan breastmilk.

The comedy pinnacle of our visit was when the waiter asked if we happened to be the owners of a ‘new black merc’ that was blocking their laneway (or interfering with their feng shui). He looked sceptical that it could be ours, so I drew myself up and used my haughtiest tone to answer that, of course it wasn’t us, our Driver had distinctly been told to circle the block until we were finished. He actually bought it!

'We should have known when we saw the new aprons. Thick Lithuanian linen (or somesuch), with real leather straps.'

Intense chai lol!