Jericho Coffee Traders - High Street

https://jerichocoffeetraders.com/pages/our-locations
105 High St, Oxford OX1 4BW

There is a certain sort of scruffy chic about the place that gives it an instant appeal. Many years ago, when I was at university, Greenwich used to have a place very like it, in which a coffee shop just sort of appeared in a place and then maintained that space for some time despite seemingly having no logic about it.

This is the flagship cafe of Jericho Coffee Traders, and I mean not to do it a disservice by describing it as such but rather to elucidate upon its homely charm. Squeeze by the narrow bar area where people clutter to wait for take aways and you can get to a back room where a large, singular coffee table is surrounded by bench seats where you perch and wait for your order to arrive. The waitress is almost apologetic at how much vegan coffee cake she brings, saying it was the last slice and it seemed absurd to cut it further. I don’t mind a bit of extra cake and am only too happy to portion it out in mouthfuls between sips of a caramel’s oat latte. 
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One can, I suppose, sit out front with views of University Church and Brasenose college but there’s something cosy about this hobbit hole out back. It forces a shared interaction with others, even if you don’t actually communicate, and is cluttered with an orderly chaos. I quite like it here, out of the way and yet very much at the heart of things.