The Newest Destination for Coffee Lovers in Newcastle
Calling all coffee lovers, Lagom is the hottest new spot you need to know about now
Revamping the former site of The Canny Goat with a new and relaxed Scandi-inspired look, Lagom opened its doors to the coffee fanatics of Newcastle in June. With a passion for speciality coffee, Matt (who already owns Fika Coffee Roasters) and Charlie hope to make their mark on the coffee scene of the North East.
Tell me about the inspiration behind Lagom.
Charlie: For myself, I got into coffee about 10 years ago and I always wanted my own shop. About a year ago I went to work at Matt’s coffee roastery in Durham. We got talking and I told him that I wanted to open a shop, and luckily he did as well. We wanted to stick to the same kind of Scandinavian feel as his roastery and a minimalistic style is always something that I’ve wanted to bring in.
Matt: I have had Fika Coffee Roasters for four years now – when I started Fika it was based around a conversation I’d had travelling back from Australia with some Swedish people who introduced us to what ‘fika’ was [a small break for coffee]. So when we branched out into the café we tried to keep it in that Scandinavian theme of Lagom which is another Swedish term for keeping balance in life.
What goes into making a great cup of coffee?
Matt: For me, one of the important things is the person who’s making it. The training needs to be in place and they need to have experience in making a good cup of coffee. It’s also about the beans and the roasting process. Everybody in the supply chain is important, all the way back to the farmer, which is what we’re trying to get across in the shop. What we try to do as roasters is bring out the best flavours of the coffee that we can, so you’ll find in the speciality cafés like ours, the beans won’t be dark roasted because for me it partly destroys the flavour of the coffee that the farmers have worked so hard to create.
Charlie: I think from the farm all the way to the cup is really important. You need to source the right beans and you need to make sure you’re sourcing them from the right places. Every step is really important. If someone messes up one step it really ruins the final finish. Matt roasts them and then when it gets to the café we have to make sure that we keep that quality and ensure that every step goes right.
What’s your favourite item on the menu?
Charlie: For my standard order I tend to go for a flat white, but if I went to a nicer coffee shop like ours, I love going for a filter, because the flavours that you get from different filters is amazing and it’s not being cancelled out by the milk.
Matt: It changes depending on the time of day. I always have a flat white in the morning with a Brazilian coffee. Our flat white is served as a flat white should be, so much smaller rather than a big milky drink, and when you order one from us it’s a six ounce cup and is much stronger. In the afternoon I have a fruity filter.
Tell us what the reception has been like.
Matt: I was a little bit nervous because The Canny Goat had a lot of regulars and we were concerned about whether those people would come back or not after it closed. But every day has shown growth since we’ve opened, and our launch day was scarily busy. It’s been going really well and the feedback has been amazing.
Charlie: On our grand opening day we decided to offer £1 coffees to get people through the door and it was absolutely manic – there were queues out of the door all day. The reception has been amazing and it’s overwhelming to feel the support from the locals and even other coffee shops. We’ve got loads of regulars already. It was a new team coming together so we wanted to make sure everything ran smoothly.
What can we hope to see in the future?
Charlie: We want to create a community where we can invite people at any stage of their coffee journey, whether they’re just starting out or they’ve been doing it for years, to educational sessions. So for example the first one we’re going to be doing is a cupping session and that will be open to the public and free so we can create that community and help people to understand coffee a bit more.
Matt: That’s what we do here at the roastery already – it’s like wine tasting. Hopefully it will give people the chance to try the different coffees that I get to experience in the roastery and some of the coffees we’ll put on at the cupping sessions are ones even I wouldn’t sell, because they’re so weird and wonderful.
Tell us your favourite hidden gem.
Matt: When I get the chance I do love to go up to High Force Waterfall.
Charlie: It’s where I proposed to my wife!
What’s your go-to guilty pleasure meal?
Charlie: I’m going to say a doughnut from one of the local places in Newcastle.
Matt: I like a Mexican from Barrio Comida.
What could you not live without?
Matt: I mean, can I go for the obvious answer?
Charlie: I’m going to go coffee!
