It’s a sultry Wednesday afternoon and I’m sat (perched, really) in #guardiancoffee, having made a belated trip here to re-caffeinate before a long afternoon catching up on writing at the Water Poet, and then Surfer Blood later tonight at the Sebright Arms. Facing near daily derision from the Huffington Post and having been baptised in a shower of criticism, #guardiancoffee seems to have hit a nerve. I came here intrigued to see if it lived up to its marketing-department-proclaimed mission to become a “caffeine-infused pop up destination” that attempts to bridge reader and journalist in “the heart of East London’s creative technology community”.
Taking up several contiguous units of the Boxpark, #guardiancoffee looks at first sight much like a mix between an Ikea kitchen and an Apple store. Words such as “sterile” or its kinder cousin “minimalist” have been bandied about, but the decor and ambiance leans more towards the functional. Indeed, semi-surreal may not be too far off the mark either, as infographics detailing the breakdown of the espresso blend dominate the walls, alongside cuddly statistics that smile at you like a precocious sibling, while bombarding you with information. It feels a little like walking into a three-dimensional conceptual installation themed around “New Media”. The Guardian online edition is available to read from any of the iPads installed in the tables, and a decidedly analogue yet pricey espresso is yours for £2.50.
Media company-venue tie-ins are, of course, not glaringly original. This is especially true in Shoreditch, where the Old Blue Last has been plying a trade for Vice for a decade now. Yet there is something about #guardiancoffee that is quite fascinating. It has been speculated that it’s probably being run at a loss, and, tellingly, the iPads have been installed not only instead of a stack of fresh newspapers, but at the expense of reading space for a printed publication. And after a well spent ten minutes, to me, at least, it seems the cheap shots volleyed at the Guardian and its espresso bar prioritise the admittedly dull aesthetic at the cost of appreciating its real significance. Really, the clue is in the just-add-followers, ready-to-trend name. #guardiancoffee is not the echo of a desperate flailing after ever-diminishing profits. Rather, it is a forward-looking, digitally orientated place that shows a company in the throes of adapting to the erosion of its traditional business model.
What perhaps is most interesting, though, is in comparing #guardiancoffee to the Old Blue Last. Each of these joint enterprises seem to be a mirror image of one another. While the Guardian is an almost two-hundred year old broadsheet introducing a venue that obliterates print and orientates the company firmly towards digital, Vice has chosen as its establishment a warmly shambolic East end boozer that serves as a kind of dispensary for the magazine’s print edition. Only time will tell which idea works better, who was shrewder; more sagacious — indeed, each model may serve these different publications quite suitably — and that is perhaps what’s most exciting. One thing is for sure: Shoreditch is one of those rare places where such innovation and experimentation is taking place.