How I found "my" coffee shop in the UK
#1 - The key ingredient to building new community ☕
Welcome to The Lighthouse! A newsletter written by a Canadian author (Cait Flanders, that’s me!) who found herself living in the middle of nowhere in the UK. It’s deeply reflective and also intentionally lighthearted. There’s enough darkness online and in real life. Let’s hangout in the light.
This is dispatch #1. 🕯️
Hi friend,
I didn’t know where I wanted to live in the UK, when I first moved here, so I came up with some search criteria. I was looking for three things: (1) a small house, (2) within a 30-minute radius of Tall Man, and (3) in a town that felt walkable. I go for at least one long walk every day, sometimes more. I wanted to be able to walk into nature from my front door. And I wanted to live in a town where I could walk to a grocery store, a library, some shops, etc.
I wanted a good coffee shop too, but there were only a handful of tearooms and one of the coffee chains. Better than nothing, I thought and decided to give the town a shot.
It was better than nothing. My drink of choice is a coconut flat white, and theirs is ok. A little big, but ok. But a trip into the coffee chain (even in a tiny town) didn’t provide the experience I was craving. The experiences I had at my favourite independent coffee shops in Victoria and Squamish and Cardiff. I wanted to know the people, and for them to know me. As friendly as I tried to be, it just wasn’t happening here. The staff weren’t picking up on my bids for connection.
It took almost a year for me to notice another coffee shop in town. But was it a coffee shop? I couldn’t tell. It kind of looked like a restaurant. Or maybe another tearoom. No shade to tearooms, but they aren’t “my” place. I knew what I was looking for. Was this new place it? I walked by a handful of times before finally getting the courage to walk in and just ask.