I love visiting different towns and cities, especially when checking out breakfast cafés is top of my agenda. When involved in the vibrancy of Manchester, you just cannot beat a cheap-as-chips vegan fry-up at Koffee Pot , or a 4pm ‘is-this-still-brunch?’ stop at Home Sweet Home.
However, contrary to popular belief, there are cafés and breakfast joints outside of Manchester. In fact, there are some stunning ones bubbling in my hometown.
Alnwick, my local town where I attended high school, is a rural market town in Northumberland best known for its role in the earlier Harry Potter films, as well as its ability to have 20 million coffee shops all centring around one market square. A café away from the immediate town centre, Barter Books, is an establishment with a twist – it just so happens to be one of the largest second-hand bookshops in Europe, and takes over an old railway station.
As well as featuring all the works an English student could ever need – such as sort-after versions of canonical classics – Barter Book’s café, The Station Buffet, is second-to-none for a good old brekkie. If you ever find yourself floating through Alnwick, then BB has you covered. There is smoked salmon, sausages, the best god-damn toast and enough sweet stuff on offer, you will leave with no teeth. We promise you will not be disappointed.
On our latest trip, my boyfriend and I opted for a couple cups of coffee, a full English breakfast and (you guessed it) gloopy, smooth avo toast with poached eggs. Melt-in-mouth flavours jam-packed with herbs and spices.
We finished up our late-morning breakfast with a gorgeous ‘honesty box donation’ Barter Books cookie and greedily left rubbing our bellies and smacking our lips. Not only is the food good, the atmosphere is pleasantly calm, while the staff simply could not be friendlier.
If you ever find yourself in my neck of the woods, or whether the café is already your local one-stop-shop; make sure Barter Books becomes a statuary staple in your life at one point.
ELLA LOUISE SCOTT 