h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3116579.stm

I've long thought that there must be a niche in the UK for French-style cafes - a place where you can get a good cup of coffee and halfway decent food just as easily as you can get a pint or a G+T.

I'm not talking about just another restaurant, I mean a place with the same kind of licencing laws as pubs and the same age restrictions. I doubt that places like that would be prone to the same kind of 'Saturday night' culture which leads to so much drunkenness and so many punch-ups after chucking out time.

Nor am I talking about your average Wetherspoons, although those are an improvement on many of the UK's pubs.

The stress which pubs and bars put on alcohol and nothing else is to their detriment in that the majority of people go there purely to get drunk, whilst only a handful go for any other reason, like because it's a nice place to go, for instance.

There's a brilliant one on Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell called Cafe Kick (it has three babyfoot tables as well). In fact, I feel an entry coming on...

Clerkenwell... I almost took a workshop in Clerkenwell - about 20 years ago

Gosho, I don't understand how French-style
cafes in the U.K. would help you when you're
in Austin, Texas.

If you ever find yourself in the Dallas/Fort Worth
Airport, there are 6 "Au Bon Pain" locations
to choose from, plus 2 other locations elsewhere
in Dallas.

I like Au Bon Pain quite a lot. Of course, it *did*
originate in Boston.

I wonder of Au Bon Pain is anything like the Cafe Rouge chain in the UK - http://www.caferouge.co.uk

What sort of a workshop, anyway?

I'm pretty saure Au Bon Pain doesn't serve
wine. Their meals are sandwich-oriented,
though they probably also have soups and
light salads.

Sounds more like the Upper Crust to me...

Pine beds

Hmmm... looking at the Au Bon Pain website I'd say that they're very unalike. Cafe Rouge is more like a marketer's idea of a traditional French cafe.

Au Bon Pain emphasizes the bakery side
of the business, plus coffee and other
beverages.

Cafe Rouge is close to what I was thinking about in post 1, if it wasn't so 'designer'.

Sounds a little like Panera's - of course they offer wonderful sandwiches made from their breads too as well as a non-alcoholic drink menu. They're not open very late though, I don't think, so it's not like they'd be any competition for the bar/pub oriented customer.

Do you have a chain called Quizno's in the USA? It's a sort of sub/sandwich bar that seems like a chain - one's opened up near me, in Wood Green Shopping City. It feels American in origin, and I was just wondering if it is?

There's one here in Lancaster. Never been there, and I don't know if it originated in the US or not - could do a google and find out, I suppose...

Yep, originated in Denver.

Yeah, we get plenty of Quizno's ads on tv, although I couldn't tell you where there's one in Austin They're the ones who always toast their bread to make it tastier aren't they?

Ah, the joys of Wood Green High Street and the Shopping City... especially on a Saturday Is that tacky gift shop still there - the one right by WH Smiths?

It shut down last week!

But then we spotted they'd opened up a new one the other side of the road...

I bought my Lava Lamp there

How about the Argos? Do you ever walk down Alexandra Road? There was a weird little aquarist shop at the top end by the Shopping City.

The Argos 'superstore' is still there, and queueing for your stuff is still hell on toast

Having looked up Alexandra Road on streetmap.co.uk, I *think* the shop you mean is still there - I can picture it in the position it ought to be in - I'll check next time.

Quizno's gets the big from me, though, I have to say - even though I'm usually ill-disposed towards chains. Well, your Pizza Huts and your Maccy Ds, certainly...

There's quite a good 10-screen cinema opened up in Shopping City, kind of above and around the back of WHSmiths - and a much worse 6-screen one opposite the tube station where the old outdoor market used to be, risibly called 'Hollywood Green'...

http://www.safercommunities.haringey.gov.uk/images/haringeyimages/HollywoodGreen.jpg

The architecture isn't bad, it's just the 'orrible mainstream films they put on there - and the fact that there's a Yates's Wine Lodge, a McDonalds, a Chicago Rock Cafe and a Wetherspoons underneath it...