Dining Out – The Cobbled Street Cafe, Belper
One of my lasting childhood memories is of me and my mum, meeting my grandmother every Saturday morning in an upstairs cafe in Chesterfield. We would happily queue on the stairs until a table became available and order our milky coffee and delicious toasted teacake. Time has moved on and the smell of freshly roasted beans and smooth rich flavours of quality ground coffee have become the order of the day. To your toasted teacake now add fresh scones and gateaux tiered with butter cream.
These lovely memories came flooding back as we entered ‘1924’, the new gallery hosting independent craft shops on Campbell Street, Belper. At its centre sits the Cobbled Street Cafe, which as its name suggests evokes the feel of a street cafe. The walls are decorated with plenty of interesting artefacts giving Cobbled Street Cafe real atmosphere and oodles of character.
It was a baking hot summer day, middle of the week and we decided a break in our day for lunch would be a very pleasant thing, and ‘1924’ was literally 2 minutes gentle stroll from Belper’s main shopping street. Cobbled Street Cafe serves chilled Fentimans old-fashioned lemonade, perfect on this hot afternoon, and there was a great choice of panini and toasted sandwiches. My panini arrived with a portion of chips, and coleslaw with fine slices of red onion, the perfect light lunch. My friend, calmed by the air conditioning, chose the large breakfast (served all day). Cooked to order, it arrived with doorstep size slices of fresh bread, and equally impressive large sausage, egg, bacon, beans, tomato and mushrooms. Suitably refreshed but not wanting to miss out on a portion of delicious cake, we each chose one to take home and enjoy later.
Daniel and Beth who run Cobbled Street Café pride themselves on sourcing quality ingredients locally, then using these to produce a simple but tempting menu. Jerry Howarth Pork Butcher features high on the list of quality suppliers along with cakes from a Bakewell bakery and bread from a Chesterfield bakery. It all goes to set a good standard for this little café.
So in a pensive mood I reflected on why I remember those times so clearly, meeting up with my grandmother in a cafe in Chesterfield. It was those small treats, nothing spectacular, but it became part of our weekly routine and something to look forward to. And I think we still need places like this, that we can make our ‘go to’ cafe, where we feel comfortable, we can just pop in, meet friends and family or just take a brief break from routine.
Cobbled Street Café is disabled friendly as it is on the level. Dogs are also welcome.
1924 Still have a limited number of newly renovated COMMERCIAL UNITS AVAILABLE to rent.
