Coffee, the constantly growing industry

Zë Au Sol

08 Apr 2016 — 1 min read

A while ago, I knew a guy in a place. This guy, we’ll call him Carter (and the place Milk Bar) made great coffee and knew other people who make great coffee. Finding out I was from Oxford, he pointed me in the direction of another guy, and another guy, who we’ll call Nathan and James, who worked in another place. It transpired that Nathan and James were planning to open a humble coffee shop in my city, what would be the first good coffee shop the city would know (sure it had Missing Bean, but they’d never quite hit ‘good’).

This was all about three years ago. Jump-cut to today, and Nathan is working his mid-Western charm in Birmingham, running his second Quarter Horse coffee, with his own roastery attached. Coming full circle, and just as I leave Oxford, QH:O (which I still consider my personal coffee shop, and remember the sincere apologies when other customers would be there in the weeks after it opened) has been redecorated. It finally has a toilet, in the summer will have a garden at the back, and has a fantastic open plan feel to it.

I look forward to seeing what the next three years brings to Quarter Horse coffee.

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