Coffee#1 Gosport — Restaurant in Gosport

A dodgy coffee shop with serious hygiene problems 📌

I worked for a short time at this coffee shop a while ago while studying at university. They advertised “#1flex working” on one of the windows, which means anyone can work with them as a gig worker, but it turned out to be a horrible experience and discovered how this miserable coffee shop works.

They hired for a front-of-house role, which includes customer interaction and food prep, but all my shifts were spent solely on heavy pot washing and lifting dish racks with no customer interaction or food prep. The shop treated it purely as manual labour. Despite the store manager suggesting I would move to full FoH duties, this never happened. That was misleading and exploitative.

Discrimination, prejudice, and questions about nationality! 🚩

On my first day the store manager (I won't name her) asked my nationality. There was no legal requirement, but it seemed to decide if I would be utilised in pot washing. She seems to think people from certain countries could be utilised as backbreaking labour.

It didn't end there. The manager also hired baristas who were discriminatory and hostile. I won’t use the exact word to describe one of them. That man, often lurking behind the coffee machine and allowed to interact with customers despite poor manners, made humiliating remarks on me based on my nationality.

Reporting it to the manager resulted in an immediate sugary, insincere apology without genuine remorse, and eventually she just let me go after that day because it was the easiest way out. Nightmare

Serious hygiene concerns! 🤢

It was surprising how little regard they give to hygiene during busy times.

Staff including the manager were seen using dirty cups and blender jars. They have limited cups and jars, and when running out during rush times, they quietly grab dirty ones straight from dish piles still waiting to be cleaned by the dishwasher.

Dirty coffee cups were quickly rinsed with tap water, and blender jars were dunked and rinsed in the same dirty standing water where coffee cups and cutlery had been pre-soaking in the blocked pot sink. Shockingly, a frappe was made in that same jar immediately after rinsing and they served it to a senior lady waiting at her table!!!

The pot washing area is right next to the coffee machine and quickly accessible, with a slightly tall wall so customers can't see. Sales come before everything else, even if it compromises someone's hygiene.

Flies often swarm on cups and other equipment because staff often take utensils out of the dishwasher halfway through the wash cycle, leaving them partially washed, and the shop doesn’t even have enough fly zappers.

Guilt-tripping customers ❗

The manager was seen emotionally manipulating a customer who left a negative review. When that customer returned, she approached the customer with her sickly sweet tone and said, “Oh dear, your review will affect the whole team,” subtly shifting blame for bad service or food onto the customer to make them feel guilty. That customer changed their honest review.

She targets new and naive international students on gig contracts, misleading them into nonstop heavy pot washing and lifting heavy dish racks so they can focus on making more coffees to boost weekend sales. If they point this out or get exhausted, they are quickly replaced like disposable labor.

Don’t trust the lady on the till. She is the store manager. She may seem friendly, but it is just a way to sell their coffees. This shop can be vindictive and unfortunately has my phone number, which I’ll consider changing soon, especially after this review.

UPDATE ----------------

The shop mass-reported this review before, as they usually do with negative reviews. I noticed it in time and later had to repost it. Tampering with reviews is a major red...

I love love love this cafe!

The team are incredible here so talkative, engaging and friendly & they make fantastic drinks! I feel like I’ve been welcomed in almost as a part of their team as a customer and that is when you know you’ve found a great cafe and have an amazing team.

I’ve recently been off work with an ongoing injury that is needing rest but also exercise, so my walk to coffee #1 is exactly that. Being at home and feeling like you can’t go anywhere can be incredibly isolating and makes you feel incredibly alone, but luckily the staff here are so talkative and welcoming that they give me something to look forward to each day & give me the social interaction I need to feel positive of my day.

I felt nervous turning up to a coffee shop everyday not knowing how that would be received by the team. But being the other side of a counter in my own store for a different company I knew I would just be seen as another friendly, regular face (at least I’d hope) 😅

I actually said today to the assistant manager here, I look forward to getting my coffee and my order soon to be remembered, there’s nothing more rewarding than learning a new regular customers order, it makes them smile a bit - and today - that indeed happened to me 😄

I normally pop on in with my pup (The Dalmatian Minnie - I’m sure they’ll know who wrote this review now) and sometimes my partner and we both love the fact that they are super dog friendly! And the staff also give her fuss which we both know she loves 🤣 it’s nice to know she feels just as welcomed here as we both do.

I have recently left the coffee industry to allow a full recovery of my injury - however I enjoy the store, atmosphere and most importantly the team that much that if I do decide that coffee is what I would like to do in my future, I’ll for sure be keeping an eye out for positions here!

Thank you everyone for your continued and outstanding service.

I’ve thoroughly appreciated the conversations, laughs, and products you deliver & look forward to the many more in the future! We have found our spot!

Katie,...

Coffee #1 is a chain store but sells great coffee. I would recommend the lemon drizzle cake. In the Gosport branch, the staff could be a bit more engaging. Whilst service was professional and friendly the team do ned to improve on the communication with the customer. This new Covid regime is confusing and in many places its an at table service, In the Gosport store it was not that clear as I went to the counter and was told I would be server soon, so I sat down unclear if I was going to be served at the table or had to go to the counter. After about 10 mins it became clear I had to go to the counter.

So, from me its three stars for this service. Good coffee and food. Friendly staff, but please make it more clear what the the service rules are and you will get a better rating on...