01
The café
Thirty seats, a window seat, a dog corner and a counter. Espresso drinks on the house blend, a rotating single origin on filter, batch brew for people in a hurry, cardamom buns from eight and brunch until three.
Espresso £2.
- Café
- Roastery
- Beans
- Wholesale
Roasted in the window.
Brewed properly.
A roastery and café on Glebe Street, Penarth. Coffee roasted on Tuesdays from named farms, brewed all week by people who taste it, sold by the bag with the date on it, and delivered to thirty-eight cafés across the Vale.
- Roast date on every bag
- Oat milk, no surcharge
- Open from 7:30 weekdays
- 4.8 from 1,120 reviews
Roasted here, on TuesdaysThe roaster is in the window. Everything we serve and sell was roasted on this street within the last three weeks, and the roast date is on every bag.
Bought from named farmsEvery coffee lists the farm or the washing station, the region, the process and what we paid per kilo, which is at least double the commodity price. We visit when we can.
Brewed by people who taste itEvery barista cups every new roast before it goes on the grinder. The espresso recipe is dialled in each morning and written on the board; if it is not right, we pull it.
Milk, and milksWhole and semi from a Vale dairy, delivered daily. Oat as standard with no surcharge; soya and almond by request. A flat white is £3.40 whichever you choose.
The roastery
Six things under one roof.
02
Beans by the bag
Everything we roast, sold by the bag with the roast date on it: the house espresso at £9.50 for 250g, four single origins that change with the harvests, a decaf, and 1kg bags for people who get through it. Ground to your brewer on request.
House espresso £9.
03
The roasting
A 12kg drum roaster in the front window, run every Tuesday by Ffion, roasting about 1,200kg a month for the café, the shelf and thirty-eight wholesale accounts. Watch from the pavement or the window seat; the door is open.
Roasting days are Tuesdays, from eight until about two.
04
Cuppings and courses
A cupping every Saturday at ten, six coffees on the table, £15 with a bag to take home; a two-hour home brewing course for filter and cafetière; and a home espresso course for people who have bought a machine and are fighting it.
Saturday cupping £15 including a 250g bag.
05
Wholesale
The house espresso from £24 a kilo, single origins and decaf, delivered weekly in our own van within fifteen miles and by courier beyond, with barista training, machine advice and a grinder calibration visit included for every account.
House espresso from £24 a kilo on a weekly order, single origins from £28, decaf £26.
06
Brunch and buns
Cardamom and cinnamon buns from the oven at the back from eight, sourdough from the bakery on the next street with eggs, avocado or beans, a winter soup and a summer granola. Small, done well, finished by three.
Cardamom bun £3.
On the shelf
Six coffees, dated.
Brazil and Colombia
Groundwork
Chocolate, hazelnut, brown sugar. The house espresso since 2016.
Washed · 250g£9.50
Guji, Ethiopia
Guji Highland
Blueberry, florals, sweet black tea. Filter, or a fruity espresso.
Natural · 250g£12.50
Huila, Colombia
El Paraíso
Red apple, caramel, clean finish. One of the two farms we buy from directly.
Washed · 250g£11.50
Western Rwanda
Gatare
Blackcurrant, orange, cocoa. The other direct relationship.
Washed · 250g£12
Antigua, Guatemala
Finca Santa Clara
Milk chocolate, toffee, soft acidity. The one for people who say they do not like light roasts.
Washed · 250g£11.50
Tolima, Colombia
Decaf Tolima
Toffee, dark chocolate. Tastes like coffee, which is the point.
Sugar-cane decaf · 250g£10.50
How we work
Four things you can expect every time.
Fresh means a date
Roast date on every bag, never a best-before. We rest espresso for seven days and filter for four, and we will not sell you a bag that is older than a month.
Open at half seven
Because the first coffee of the day is the one that matters. Batch filter is on by 7:30 and the oven has done the buns by eight.
The price is on the board
A flat white is £3.40 with any milk. A 250g bag of the house espresso is £9.50. Wholesale prices are on the website, which most roasters would rather you did not see.
Dogs, laptops, kids
All welcome. Water bowls by the door, plugs at the back wall, high chairs, and a corner that is quiet before ten. Laptops are asked to move on when it is full at the weekend.
- 9years on Glebe Street
- 1,200kgroasted a month
- 38cafés and shops we supply
- 4.8average rating
Tuesdays
The roaster is in the window on purpose.
Roasting is not a secret, it is the whole business. Every Tuesday from eight, Ffion runs twenty to thirty batches through the 12kg drum roaster in the front window, each one logged second by second and cupped the next morning before it goes anywhere. Watch from the pavement, the window seat or the doorway; the street smells of it from the end of the road.
- Named farms and washing stations, with what we paid
- Two farms we buy from directly, in Colombia and Rwanda
- The house blend roasted to the same profile since 2016
A look inside
Three mornings.
RoastingTuesday, batch eleven
Ffion
The Guji natural at first crack. Thirty batches a Tuesday, every one logged, every one cupped the next morning before it goes anywhere.
The caféHalf past seven, the first flat white
Amara
Dialled in at seven, written on the board, first cup to the man who has been first through the door for nine years.
FilterThis week on filter
Owen
The Rwandan, 15g to 250ml, three pours, three minutes. The recipe is on the back of the bag so you can do it at home.
Reviews
What Penarth says.
The best flat white in the Vale and I have tried them all. Oat milk with no surcharge, the recipe on the board, and a cardamom bun I would drive for. The window seat with the roaster going on a Tuesday is my favourite place in town.
Bought a bag of the Rwandan after the Saturday cupping, followed the recipe on the back, and made the best coffee I have ever made at home. The roast date on the bag is the thing; everything else in the supermarket is months old.
We have taken Groundwork for four years. Weekly delivery in their van, a calibration visit every quarter, and they trained two of our staff for nothing when we opened. The price is on their website, which tells you everything about how they do business.
Find us
Glebe Street, the corner with the orange door.
Number 3, two minutes from the town centre and five from the pier, four from the station. Dogs inside, laptops on weekdays, high chairs, and the window seat first come. On Tuesdays you will smell it before you see it.
- Where. 3 Glebe Street, Penarth, the corner shop with the oat frontage and the orange door, two minutes from the town centre and five from the pier. The roaster is in the window; you cannot miss it on a Tuesday.
- Parking. On-street on Glebe Street and the roads around it, one hour free with a disc. The Windsor Road car park is three minutes. Bike racks outside the door.
- Train and bus. Penarth station is a four-minute walk; Dingle Road six. The 92, 93 and 94 buses stop at the end of the street.
Questions people ask
Is the coffee really roasted here?
Yes, every Tuesday, in the window, on a 12kg drum roaster, by Ffion. About 1,200kg a month for the café, the shelf and thirty-eight wholesale accounts. The roast date is on every bag.
What is the house coffee?
Groundwork: two washed coffees from Brazil and Colombia roasted to the same profile since 2016. Chocolate, hazelnut and brown sugar; it is what is in your flat white and in thirty-eight other cafés across the Vale and Cardiff.
Do you charge extra for oat milk?
No. A flat white is £3.40 with whole, semi, oat, soya or almond. The dairy comes from a farm in the Vale; the oat is the one that steams properly.
Can I buy the beans online?
Yes, from the beans page, posted the day after roasting, or on a fortnightly subscription at £8.50 for 250g with free delivery in Penarth, Dinas Powys, Sully and Llandough. Or come in; it is ground to order and cheaper.
Do you supply cafés?
Thirty-eight of them. House espresso from £24 a kilo with weekly delivery in our van, barista training and a quarterly calibration visit included. The price list is on the wholesale page.
Come in, or have it delivered.
Open from half seven on weekdays, roasting in the window on Tuesdays, cupping on Saturdays at ten. Beans by the bag in the café or on a fortnightly subscription; wholesale from £24 a kilo with the price list online.