Monday-Saturday 10am – 5pm, Sundays 10am – 5pm.

PLEASE NOTE: Hot food and lunches served between 12pm-3pm

The cafe area used to be the Mitchell’s kitchen, before the bookshop took over.  It is homely and colourful with filled with interesting posters and artefacts that Dave has collected over the years, adding to its quirkiness and style.

Connected to the cafe is the vineyard where a vine grows under the glass roof. Here there are two more tables or a large table seating eight; a great space for meetings.

Lots going on in the cafe- a cafe philosophique, conversation cafe and book club.

The Food

It is a vegetarian cafe offering vegan and gluten free food. We serve organic drinks, teas and good coffee, simple meals with delicious salads and our own home-made soups.

The Cafe is in what used to be our living-kitchen – still homely, and only slightly less cluttered. Half-subterranean, light filters down from a small garden, where there are a couple of extra tables when it’s warm and dry enough. In between is the “vineyard” or “Ivanry” with a table for about eight. Alas, Ivan and Dave’s outrageous book-pricing decisions can no longer be observed here, and they have been pushed up another floor, or out onto the Prom. Nevertheless, this is still a cafe where lots and lots goes on! (Oh and the food is just amazing, see examples of the  menu below)

The food is all vegetarian with organic produce when possible, with vegan and gluten-free options available. Home-cooked seasonal produce provides the basis for a continually evolving range of wholesome and hearty meals, thick tasty soups, interesting salads and tempting cakes.  Sometimes (and in season), eggs (foxes allowing), tomatoes, beans, spinach, beetroot, herbs and apples are from our own garden (occasional hazardous misguided tours).

The cafe compliments but also rivals the bookshop – spend too long in here and not enough on books and you can influence the future use of the building; an example of the Interactive Cafe!

The Scarthin Cafe Menu

Contents subject to fate, destiny, the winds of change and overdue website updating!

Coffees

Coffee, freshly ground in individual cafetieres:

Filter Cafetiere (Medium roast, Decaffeinated, French Roast and Columbian)

Espresso Coffee (Cappuccino, Latte, Americano, Mocha, Espresso)

Teas

Various: including Breakfast, Decaffeinated, Earl Grey, Decaffeinated Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Lapsang Souchong, Rooibos, China Keemun, Assam, Chamomile, Peppermint, Echinacea & Raspberry, Lemon & Ginger, Apple & Cinnamon, Wild Blackcurrant, Raspberry & Strawberry & Loganberry, Fennel, Liquorice, Keemun, Jasmine, Honeybush & Lemon, Yogi tea: sweet chai/sweet chilli; some Fair Trade and/or Organic

Hot Chocolate

Clipper fair trade and organic (vegan)

Soft Drinks

Cordials, still or sparkling:  Blackcurrant, Elderflower, Nettle, Ginger.

Sparkling Cold Drinks: Organic Lemonade, Organic Cola, Organic Apple & Raspberry, Spring Water, Diet Coke

Sparkling Bottled Drinks: Fentiman’s Ginger Beer, Dandelion & Burdock or Rose Lemonade

Savoury Food / Sweet Dishes – The Scarthin Cafe Menu

Magazines

The periodical rack, always untidy, houses a range rarely available outside mayor libraries. Coffee-stain these rather than the books! Stocked at present:

• Nature
• About Larkin
• The Economist
• The BBC Music Magazine
• Scientific American
• Songlines
• The Cottage Gardener
• Clean Slate (Alternative Technology)
• Archaeology Today
• Philosophy Now
• Byron Review
• Canoe Focus
• (NFU) Countryside Magazine
• New York Review of Books
• Cook Vegetarian
• Vegetarian Living
• That Plant’s Odd
• Mining History
• Total Liberty (Anarchism)
• And some more I’ve forgotten besides..

“Vineyard”

The table in the “vineyard” extension can be booked by groups at off-peak hours. Meetings there include the monthly Thursday morning Conversation Cafe open group, now supplemented by the monthly Tuesday morning Conversation Cafe Political open group. Meetings are from 10am for 10.15-12. See our main New Page for forthcoming meetings.

The Whole Cafe

(with use of hot water and loo upstairs), is available for hire in the evenings, a Buddhist group are present meeting on Thursdays and also The Bob Dylan Group meet at regular intervals.

For more information see: The Grapevine Great British Where to Eat Vegetarian Restaurant Guide www.grapevineguides.co.uk, or for international listings, www.happycow.net, and also the BMW Drive-by Food Guide. Information is also available on Facebook, Twitter, Veggie Places Website and the Vegetarian visitors Guide