The Counter
Twelve feet of oak, one lever machine, and a bar team that talks to you.
We believe coffeeshould makeyou pause.
NO. 12 started as a stubborn idea: that a coffee shop could be small, slow and still excellent. Ten years later the machine is the same, the stools are more worn, and the queue is longer.
- Founded
- 2016
- Farms
- Four, direct
- Roasted
- On Thursdays
01
How it started.
A shuttered tile workshop on Kiln Street, a second-hand lever machine and a landlord who thought we would last six months. We kept the kiln bricks, painted everything cream, and put twelve stools inside.
The first year we sold more croissants than coffee. The second we started roasting in the back. By the fourth, people were queueing past the tile shop next door, which the neighbours have never quite forgiven.
Nothing here is scaled. It is just tended to.
02
Sourced by hand, not by catalogue.
We buy from four farms we have visited, at prices we publish, and we roast what we can sell in ten days. That is the whole strategy.
4
Partner farms
10
Day roast window
2.4×
Above commodity price
0
Blends we hide
03
Four corners of one room.
The Window
Four stools facing the street. The best seat before 9am, no argument.
The Back Room
Where the dough is laminated at 4am and the roaster runs on Thursdays.
The Brew Bar
One rotating origin, four minutes, and a conversation about water.
04
The people behind the bar.
Nine of us, most days five on shift. Everyone knows how to dial in the grinder and nobody is precious about washing up.
Inês
Head Barista
Tomás
Baker
Rita
Roaster
