New cycle café

Carpenter

Hi all
A friend of mine is opening a new café and it is aimed @ the cycling community.
First of all I am not here looking to advertise it (unless you want me to and am allowed) what he needs are ideas as to what we would like to see in it so I told him I would put it up here and you good folks might help out a little.
Any help would be great .

Raam

Cycling races on the telly!

Carpenter

Raam wrote: »

Cycling races on the telly!

Yea sounds good but do you mean live or recorded races

Idleater

Carpenter wrote: »

Yea sounds good but do you mean live or recorded races

Yes.

not yet

Beer and strippers...

Raam

Carpenter wrote: »

Yea sounds good but do you mean live or recorded races

When there is a live race show it, otherwise a recording of a recent one if the owner wants to have it on all the time.

MickeyTake

Good strong espressos, delicious frothy cappuccinos, a place to put the bike inside, and bikes that everyone dreams of owing so they can just have a look at them

eeeee

Track pump and decent covered bike parking. The Cake Box off Camden street has great covered bike parking.
And excellent cake and a decent selection of herbal tea. That last one may just be me specific though :P I am sick of just peppermint, calmomile and a berry tea as the herbal options when there are waay better options there.

And the ability to fill a water bottle.

ETA Sexy frames on the wall.

ROK ON

Where is it.
If in Dublin and you cant advertise then pm me.

Tips
Visit Rapha Cycle club in London - there is always (ALWAYS) a race on the large TV. Either live or recorded.
Lots of old cycling mags.

Cycling memorabilia - jerseys race pics etc - not of big races but of local clubs and local races. Keep it local and build community.

Good coffee - for good pay a visit to Kaph in Dublin if you want to see what actual coffee is suposed to taste like.
Confectionary - be inventive. Nice cakes, scones, interesting sambos. Soups.
Drinks license - that way you could do stuff during the big races of the season (GTs and classics), but you could also do stuff at night - ie spinning races - the couriers used to organise stuff like this - ask Petethedrummer.

Open early on Sat and Sun mornings and provide brekkie (coffee/porridge/granola/etc) then suggest to cycling groups and clubs that it is a place to meet up prior to weekend spins.


Sponsor something, even something small. A local race/audax/sportif.

Get an area for bike parking - suggest hooks from the ceiling so that bikes can be hung.

Track pump.

Spares to sell - tubes/tyre levers - nothing major - but these will help build the message that you cater for the cycling community.

Maybe if you have space get a mechanic, or else hook up with a mechanic that could come in once a week for a clinic. Try one of the mobile bike mechanic dudes. Have you bike repaired or learn how to repair a bike with a race on the tv and a coffee in your hand - how bad.

Very best of luck. I hope this succeeds. Have seen some nice ones in London and Amsterdam.

Carpenter

Ok

Carpenter

ROK ON wrote: »

Where is it.
If in Dublin and you cant advertise then pm me.

Tips
Visit Rapha Cycle club in London - there is always (ALWAYS) a race on the large TV. Either live or recorded.
Lots of old cycling mags.

Cycling memorabilia - jerseys race pics etc - not of big races but of local clubs and local races. Keep it local and build community.

Good coffee - for good pay a visit to Kaph in Dublin if you want to see what actual coffee is suposed to taste like.
Confectionary - be inventive. Nice cakes, scones, interesting sambos. Soups.
Drinks license - that way you could do stuff during the big races of the season (GTs and classics), but you could also do stuff at night - ie spinning races - the couriers used to organise stuff like this - ask Petethedrummer.

Open early on Sat and Sun mornings and provide brekkie (coffee/porridge/granola/etc) then suggest to cycling groups and clubs that it is a place to meet up prior to weekend spins.


Sponsor something, even something small. A local race/audax/sportif.

Get an area for bike parking - suggest hooks from the ceiling so that bikes can be hung.

Track pump.

Spares to sell - tubes/tyre levers - nothing major - but these will help build the message that you cater for the cycling community.

Maybe if you have space get a mechanic, or else hook up with a mechanic that could come in once a week for a clinic. Try one of the mobile bike mechanic dudes. Have you bike repaired or learn how to repair a bike with a race on the tv and a coffee in your hand - how bad.

Very best of luck. I hope this succeeds. Have seen some nice ones in London and Amsterdam.

Thank you for the reply the good coffee is on its way and a bike machanic will be next door ,bike parking will be outside but you can sit outside I know what it is like not being able to see your bike .
The 50inch TV will be on the wall inside (when he gets the screws to fix the bracket ) spares are being organized as we speak but may take a little time
Good Cycling memorabilia is hard to find but the eyes are looking if anyone has any old cycling stuff even bits of an old bike I am sure there would be some coffee in it for you .
This is great please keep the recommendations flowing

padjo5

Decor will be important......I could be very wrong but I feel cyclists in general like the sort of 'aged' decor. Think we like vintage/history! While they park up their very modern and expensive bikes they seem to love roughing it by sitting at vintage furniture and old and odd chairs! Psychological thing! Perhaps it's only my personal taste but the decor of the cafe in Laragh is bang on.

Jawgap

Are you at least able to tell us where it is?......


Good coffee and good cake.

Stew and soup in the winter?

Home-made granola bars to takeaway.

Consider setting up a 'club' or 'group' on Strava as well as the more 'traditional' social media outlets.

A general prohibition on tri-ahtletes and runners!!

Think about, if it's possible, establishing an 'honesty box' where cyclists can leave a few bits (tubes etc) for other cyclists to take / use on the strict understanding they come back and replace whatever it is they had to take.

Darkglasses

Just so it's clear from the get go, if he wants to advertise here he has to contact hello@boards.ie. Any attempt to work around this is likely to bring an automatic site ban from the administrators, not us. See the prison forum if you want to see how often it happens.

This thread is fine, feel free to go on. I'd strongly advise messaging a mod if you're unsure about posting something.

LennoxR

Thing about cycling cafes is that most cyclists live in the city but they want a café c.30-50 km from Dublin to use as a coffee stop. When people get back into the city they just want to go home and shower for the most part.

But anyway here's a wish list;

Comfortable, good coffee, snacks.

Track Pump.

Somewhere safe for bikes,

Seating indoors and out

Friendly staff,

Bike stuff to look at (optional)

nak

Ronde in Edinburgh and Siempre in Glasgow are both great examples of how cafes aimed at cyclists can be successful. Both in residential areas of the city and have a shop on one side cafe on the other.

Bike parking is inside in Siempre - hangers on the wall, they also do a full lunch menu. Ronde is more soup, coffee and cake and they show live races. Have a club/team attached to the shop and weekend rides leave from there, so people don't mind stopping in for coffee on the way home.

There ate also 2 cycling themed pubs in Edinburgh - Ventoux and Tourmalet.

johnk123

I think this is a good idea. Good coffee is key, as you'll attract more than just cyclists to a cafe that has good coffee. Dublins coffee culture is coming on a lot, so you should have no trouble teaming up with someone to bring you good coffee.

Bear in mind that realistically you'll probably have about 85+% of your customers being just people going about their daily business and stopping in for a coffee who may happen to be interested in cycling. For them, it'll be a cool place to be as opposed to a really functional cafe where I'm going to go before every spin and to talk about bikes with strangers...


Decor is important and I agree with what most are saying about the 'rustic' or 'minimal effort that actually took weeks of planning' look. I was in a really cool cafe in Italy that was really popular with the local cyclists. You could see that it was just a cafe that had accumulated various cycling paraphernalia over time. For decor, they had a couple of framed jerseys etc, but other cool stuff like old chain rings drilled into the wall behind the counter.... Or on the bathroom door they had dismantled a rear cassette and stuck them on the wall in descending order... And light fittings hanging from bike chains and a few cool framed pictures of the old greats (this would be extremely cheap, but effective if done right)... They also had bike tubes for sale at a very fair price... ... You'll just piss off cyclists if they can see you're charging €10 for a tube..

The idea of a cyclists breakfast would be cool, even for people on their way to work etc.

The best thing you can do, is look at the Rapha cafe or the Bianchi one (plenty videos online).. visit it.. or closer to home, drive out to a few of the coffee shops mentioned on here.. Have a look yourself, if your buddy is already thinking of opening a cafe he probably already knows that good coffee and friendly staff are essential.. it's what your angle towards cycling is going to be that's going to be the difference. You're creating a cycling cafe, vs all those hokey pokey cafes out in the mountains that have simply adapted after the recent increase in this marvelous sport!

I was in NYC at the end of last summer and remember stumbling upon this cool cafe place. The reason I went in was because there was a tonne of bikes outside and loads of messengers just chilling on the outside seating and rushing off at various intervals.. Initially I thought it was a bit of a club or something, but after seeing a few 'suits' walking in and out with takeaways I went in.. Nice spot!

ashleey

Carpenter wrote: »

Hi all
A friend of mine is opening a new café and it is aimed @ the cycling community.
First of all I am not here looking to advertise it (unless you want me to and am allowed) what he needs are ideas as to what we would like to see in it so I told him I would put it up here and you good folks might help out a little.
Any help would be great .

Put it in Kilkenny

sy

What part of the country ?

slap/dash

As ppl have said, good coffee, parking. Would be nice if you had some sort of cake/brownie type stuff that could just throw in jersey and chow on later. Major points if you can do at least one vegan option

Jawgap

What about a cycling inspired menu, with items named after and inspired by aspects of the sport or famous (or perhaps notorious) cyclists.....

Paris Roubaix (Rocky Road)

The Jan Ullrich (Roast beef on a Kaiser roll)

The Rasmussen (Plain chicken)

The Hushovd (beans on toast!)

The Armstrong (Texan BBQ)

The Kelly (it eats you)

I'll pass on the Merckxx

Inquitus

The Bjarne Riis - Black pudding, minimum 60% Haematocrit

Tenzor07

Bike parking, reasonably secure, i.e. not out facing the road where your bike can be easily snatched.

Plenty of seats outside ... and a canopy for when it rains.. Heaters outside for winter..

Value for money and healthy menu options, Chips n Burger won't cut it..

I have an idea that it's close to the Barge pub...

Planet X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRCNwDpua30

brayblue24

not yet wrote: »

Beer and strippers...

...In no particular order

Zyzz

Posters of half naked women with bikes plastered all over the walls.

eeeee

Zyzz wrote: »

Posters of half naked women with bikes plastered all over the walls.

Only if there are also semi nudey menfolk on show too. :P calendar time!!

Darkglasses

gadetra wrote: »

Only if there are also semi nudey menfolk on show too. :P calendar time!!

You're looking for the party bus

eeeee

Oh I am familiar with the party bus

There has been a lack of 'talent' around those parts lately *sniff*

Koobcam

Apart from the decor, I reckon opening hours are important. People doing 9-5 jobs (which may or may not be the majority??) and cycling would benefit from being able to drop off a bike before work and collecting afterwards-Harry's in Clonskeagh is great for this. The only customers you'll get during the day are full-time cyclists and people without a job-who may also be full-time cyclists, though may not have so much disposable income.

Showing races live is a great idea, but I would suggest projector and pull-down screen for this, though obviously it will depend on how much space you have.

You should also consider sponsoring a cycling club-if the shop is in Dublin, then you'll get your name out to a lot of people this way. And, if you want to get cyclists to your shop, then as I mentioned above, opening hours…People will want to be having their coffee before and after their spins, and you could turn yourself into a nice meeting place for a lot of people.

happytramp

Where about's is it going to be?

artengo

happytramp wrote: »

Where about's is it going to be?

He won't answer or else has not been back on boards. It's really annoying.
Anyway best of luck with it. I look forward to watching a race and drinking coffee in there. ( if it's near me )

NBar

Think it's going next to this building

RobertFoster

NBar wrote: »

Think it's going next to this building

A complimentary bottle of oxygen with every coffee ordered.

brayblue24

Koobcam wrote: »

The only customers you'll get during the day are full-time cyclists and people without a job-who may also be full-time cyclists, though may not have so much disposable income.

And those of us on shift work. Although you're right about the disposable income bit

Carpenter

Darkglasses wrote: »

Just so it's clear from the get go, if he wants to advertise here he has to contact hello@boards.ie. Any attempt to work around this is likely to bring an automatic site ban from the administrators, not us. See the prison forum if you want to see how often it happens.

This thread is fine, feel free to go on. I'd strongly advise messaging a mod if you're unsure about posting something.

OK I am back sorry about not replying sooner
I am not going to advertise without asking first but as it is still in the start up stage there is no point advertising yet.
He is hoping 2---3 weeks for the initial opening coffee and outdoor seating by the way it is about 30k outside Dublin city and I know many here cycle past it on the weekends .
I will be up that way tomorrow and will show him everything you all have said and will post his answers here .
Also I have had pm,s about the location can I reply to them telling the location

wanderer 22

Carpenter wrote: »

OK I am back sorry about not replying sooner
I am not going to advertise without asking first but as it is still in the start up stage there is no point advertising yet.
He is hoping 2---3 weeks for the initial opening coffee and outdoor seating by the way it is about 30k outside Dublin city and I know many here cycle past it on the weekends .
I will be up that way tomorrow and will show him everything you all have said and will post his answers here .
Also I have had pm,s about the location can I reply to them telling the location

If I was to open a cycle cafe, I'd put it at the crossroads just outside Enniskerry, where the petrol station used to be...am I close?:D

Carpenter

colm18 wrote: »

If I was to open a cycle cafe, I'd put it at the crossroads just outside Enniskerry, where the petrol station used to be...am I close?:D

Hi Colm
You would be opening in a good spot there but as you will see in a week or two that garage is re opening contact me on strava chap I have to be very careful what I put up here .

dermabrasion

Maybe already mentioned, but some more stuff
~Bike washer facility would be good. Either an air-hose or a water pressure washer (not too strong).MTB folk may like this.
~Somewhere to dry-off. Some way to de-layer and dry-off gloves, jackets and keep warm.
~Decent sinks in the jax with helmet shelf, plenty of soap and hot water and paper towels.
~A non-slip floor for cleats, especially in the jax.

Some weight weenies were all non-carb granole'd shoots and berries up...but.....I want chips! Belgian Friterie, Quebec Poutine, Polish Brat-worst and beer! After a hard slog on a crappy wet day, 4hrs of grinding, 2900 calories clocked on my garmin, I'm having a beer.

Carpenter

dermabrasion wrote: »

Maybe already mentioned, but some more stuff
~Bike washer facility would be good. Either an air-hose or a water pressure washer (not too strong).MTB folk may like this.
~Somewhere to dry-off. Some way to de-layer and dry-off gloves, jackets and keep warm.
~Decent sinks in the jax with helmet shelf, plenty of soap and hot water and paper towels.
~A non-slip floor for cleats, especially in the jax.

Some weight weenies were all non-carb granole'd shoots and berries up...but.....I want chips! Belgian Friterie, Quebec Poutine, Polish Brat-worst and beer! After a hard slog on a crappy wet day, 4hrs of grinding, 2900 calories clocked on my garmin, I'm having a beer.

A power washer will be going outside I have being told
No beer sorry chap and the non slip tiles will be mentioned .

LCD

Someone who could do minor repairs. You get your gears working while your having a coffee.

thejaguar

Some place to get gloves and/or jacket dry or at least warmed up a bit would be nice.

Alek

Polish Brat-worst

Either Polish kiełbasa or German bratwurst!

Both delicious, usually

OldBones

Carpenter wrote: »

Hi all
A friend of mine is opening a new café and it is aimed @ the cycling community.
First of all I am not here looking to advertise it (unless you want me to and am allowed) what he needs are ideas as to what we would like to see in it so I told him I would put it up here and you good folks might help out a little.
Any help would be great .

Could you get Stephen Roche to work there during the off-season?

Carpenter

OldBones wrote: »

Could you get Stephen Roche to work there during the off-season?

Funny you say that I was up there today and his name came up in conversation .

Rambling Man

If you can't get the mechanic, there's some fella called Armstrong on Youtube that does videos showing how to change a tube in anger.

omri

And after all these fancy pantsy cyclist friendly stuff - keep the prices as low as possible Cyclist are usualy poor - they use bicycles because they cannot afford cars = very little monies in general

Carpenter

Rambling Man wrote: »

If you can't get the mechanic, there's some fella called Armstrong on Youtube that does videos showing how to change a tube in anger.

He dropped in a CV today nice bloke to be honest

NBar

Is this new cafe on the North,South or West of Dublin

Eamonnator

I'm hoping North, but I would hazard a guess, that's its South.

dermabrasion

Eamonnator wrote: »

I'm hoping North, but I would hazard a guess, that's its South.

I'm sensing deep south, Mason-Dixon line (Wicklow border)