LONDON: British newspaper The Guardian has opened what it callx a “data-driven” cafe in London, sparking swift, bitter, funny, as well as bitterly funny reactions in the Twittersphere.
Despite the little fanfare to accompany the coffee shop’s opening in Shoreditch this week, the Twittersphere got wind of the new cafe and made the hashtag #guardiancoffee a trending topic Thursday.
Opened to provide journalists with a workspace, #Guardiancoffee is tech and social media-heavy, with flat screens lining the walls, which broadcast live tweets about the cafe, live coffee sales, and tablets made available at nearly every table which themselves are emblazoned with a lowercase ‘g’ in the paper’s trademark font.
One of the most popular retweets about the cafe comes from The Daily Telegraph’s film critic, Robbie Collin, who took a jab at Guardian political columnist Polly Toynbee with the blast, “Popping down to #guardiancoffee later on to order a ‘Toynbee’: short, rich and intensely bitter.”
Less than 24 hours after posting, the comment was retweeted 314 times and favorited among 71 Twitter users.
Meanwhile, early reviews are also in and much of it lackluster.
A review in British GQ magazine, for instance, bemoans the immovable tablets, which are fixed to the center of the tables, and the fact that tweets are moderated: Robbie Collin’s tweet, for example, was nowhere to be seen.
Vice magazine also published a rather visceral review, calling the atmosphere “sterile and deathly…lifeless and cynical.”
As for price points, an espresso costs £2.50 and a bottle of water is £2.
According to the paper’s social and communities editor, Joanna Geary, the café will also have a dedicated space for interviews and special events and serve as a part-time workspace for the paper’s tech writers.
She also says the café will open officially next week.
The cafe is temporary for the time being.
It’s not a new concept for newspapers to open their own branded coffee shops. Dutch publisher NRC opened a restaurant in Amsterdam, NRC Restaurant Café, in the newsroom building that provides views of the journalists at work, media-themed menus, and projections of news photos of the day.
The Winnipeg Free Press in Canada also opened a cafe which doubles as a town hall for lectures, seminars, book and music launches.
The public is also invited to hear journalists interview politicians, actors, sports stars and musicians while tucking into a muffuleta sandwich or a Cobb salad.
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