From November we are closed on Mondays at our Covent Garden and Borough Market shops. You’ll find our opening days and hours here.
Like many other companies in retail and hospitality, and many other industries, we have found ourselves in a rather awkward set of circumstances. We got a lot busier as we came out of the COVID restrictions in July (which is terrific and we’re happy to see you all!) however at the same time we have found it challenging to hire enough people to make coffee and sell coffee over our counters. It’s comforting to know that we’re not alone with this problem but that isn’t enough to keep the doors open six days a week. We concluded that it is better to close a day and have enough people five days a week than stretch our team too thinly over six.
We’re really sorry we need to do this and we’re not sure how long it will last. There are greater minds than your writer’s puzzling over this and while we are competitively remunerated, with great benefits, and are a rather attractive place to work in coffee if you take my word for it, we are still up against a situation where there doesn’t seem to be many people in London at this time applying for a customer-facing coffee role. So, please, if you know friendly people who love coffee let them know we’re hiring! All the information is on our website, and we welcome all you career changers who are fed up with WFH, are in a hot paper-shuffle-mess and want to be where the fun and action is – yes, you get to drink all the coffee. We are hiring for full and part-time work, as well as Christmas jobs.
Speaking of which, our Christmas counter is starting to take shape and we have some favourites like Alemayehu Daniel (Ethiopia) and some new favourites like La Idolia (Guatemala) arriving on to the counter very soon. We have our first container from Bolivia for this season en-route also and we will have a Natural Process and Washed Method (all going well with the shipping…) in time for Christmas.
And for everyone asking already (some of you are very organised!) we have chocolate coming from Loctoa and panettone from the Ulcigrai family. Alumnus Nick Willson started Loctoa Chocolate a few years ago and is specialising in micro-batch chocolate – roasting, conching, tempering, and moulding, adding no artificial sugars or lecithin. Panettone from Pasticceria Triestina Ulcigrai is being made and will shortly be on its way too. You’ll see them both on our Instagram as soon as it is available in our shops.
To sweeten the rather sad news about Mondays we also have a new treat in our treat line up – vanilla canelé from Babelle. Your writer found them being sold at Jones of Brockley in East Dulwich and has started a rather intense love affair with them ever since. Babelle is a London based bakery specialising in canelé. Canelé were traditionally made from the left-over egg yolks from wine production (the egg whites were used to clarify wine) and have now become a speciality in their own right. Check out babelle.uk for some seriously interesting flavours.
This is it for this month. Next month is December already and before we know it, it will be 2022. We have an interesting project we’re hoping to kick off in January or February. Keep an eye on those months’ newsletters for the news.
We’ll be back open on Mondays as soon as we can,
Monmouth x
