Espressino — Restaurant in London

I will disagree with Laura who left notes a few weeks ago. Personally, I reviewed a good healthy number of coffee shops, being Google Maps Guide Level 8.

Here is why I disagree. The character of the barista makes the whole difference, I met Ant, the owner, today and we developed a connection, a relationship. No relationship, no good coffee. This has been acknowledged through out all coffee drinking cultures. That is why Starbucks will never be a destination coffee venue, but remain a free co-working space. With bad coffee.

No barista, no coffee. Barista does not mean wearing a t-shirt. It is a craft that you learn, master and develop to a new level. If you are a good barista.

It is exactly what we discussed with Roberto from Italy a few minutes ago when he stopped for a coffee with his family. He was definitive in his assessment, Ant with The Black Chapel, belongs to the top team of players who are raising the coffee game in London. To an extent that Italian professionals are taking notice and nodding.

Coffee quality at The Black Chapel is top of the tree. So, if you have to adapt to this particular barista’s style of communication, it could only be an upside for you. Raising the game in emotional intelligence. The skill / set of skills women are naturally good at. Coffee is a game, if you want a fake smile and non-story of the blend you order, go to Costa.

Independent shops have quality and character, that is why we go there.

When something with a degree of fuzziness is coming my way, I now stop and ask myself two questions: 1) Is there another angle to it which I have not seen? 2) Do I know enough about the subject area to make a sound judgement?

My rule of the thumb is not leave bad reviews, I am not a food and drink critic. My firm belief is what goes around comes around. We can always improve. And communicate in an intelligent and intellectual way. We don't have to throw a snow ball and hide behind the wall of Web 2.0 - it is there for us to interact in new ways, ways we have not used before.

I am a big advocate for intellectual debate and when someone says something and hides somewhere where we can not interact with this transaction, it becomes quite dull and uninteresting, and that is not what Web 2.0 is for. The style of "I throw my snow ball and hide and see if I can make some damage" is a style of a 1960's Soviet Russia canteen in a factory when your soup was missing some basic ingredients, often, and then you would go to the till and demand "The Book of Complaints"!

It is a lot easier to understand someone than the make someone understand you. Fact. We don’t think enough about it, but it is true.

What we know that when we are tired our ability that make rational decisions is deprived. Coffee is a short term fix. Which works.

Google Maps, perhaps is not the most efficient way to feed back on a CS issue. If you do that, it really looks mean spirited. Which is a bad reflection on the character of the author. Facebook, messaging the owner would be the first port of call for me, as they have better chances of responding quickly.

The Black Chapel has a FB page, knowing Ant, he is an owner who would have liked to remedy this scenario. Sometimes, one’s style may be slightly abrupt, every one deserves a second chance. When the overall score is 10 out 10. Even more so.

In addition to the above, one really has to be in the top 20% of customers for any business to have a fair exchange in a CS transaction. Otherwise, as a business owner, you spend time on your random customers who buy once, where your business is made by those who buy from you every day. And if you spend too much time on CS with random, non-repeat customers, your 'red carpet' customers would suffer. As a business owner, you have to make management decisions every day. Sometimes, not the one a random customer is going to like.

Steve Jobs said it with confidence that customers often do not know what they want. Therefore, they can not drive the future direction...

Great coffee, but order a flat white at your peril! As a sleep deprived mother and keen to support independent businesses in the area, I popped in to grab a much needed hit of caffeine on the run and was made to feel like a complete idiot and huge inconvenience for wanting a flat white (heavens forbid!). I’m all for “concept” businesses and open to learning but don’t need the arrogance and disdain shown by the barista today, that’s not the way you do it. Really disappointing when independent/craft businesses let ego get in the way of an opportunity to educate and celebrate their product, what’s the point? Hoping I got a bad egg of a bunch. Coffee was great though, perhaps it’s the lashings of contempt and omission of kindness in every cup that...

Awful experience from start to finish. Pretentious and rude. Coffee was mediocre. Oh dear, learn to take criticism! I left an honest review and said you were pretentios and rude you responded by name calling and bleating on about making coffee for the wealthy and famous. I think you've proved my point. Also stalking people who leave bad revirws is not clever. You're not a nice person.

Update: you’re so silly. It’s been two years since I left this review and every few weeks you update your response with a bit of creative writing. I think it’s great that you’ve managed to evolve your account of that fateful day in 2016. We are finished. It’s over. Move on with your life and find someone who will love you. I...