Carrot Cake Quest
Basics
Location
http://www.greenclubcafe.com/
Per Person
3 coffees. A shared carrot cake.
€4 each
In not so many words
Hopes?
Decent coffee. Homemade cake.
Reality?
OK coffee, partly successful cake.
First Impressions?
Spacious with nooks and crannies. Window seats. Laptops.
A USP?
USP, USB? Funiculi, funicular? You say potato, I say - a hat stand with a USB port in the top, standing in a corner.
The food in three words?
Today, carrot cake.
Can they get the staff?
One efficient chap.
Service with a smile?
Nothing to complain about. Chatty with the three ladies ahead of me.
Would you take your friends?
Not if they're coffee-trainspotters. We're in trad Cafe con Letch territory, here. No new numbers to be had.
Rating for a dating?
Not fair to try to judge. Needs an evening visit, but those nooks and crannies might give a positive clue.
Tip?
Nope.
If you could change one thing, what would it be?
The Green Club threatened to turn us blue. Put the heating on!
Going back?
There are lots of other options to try.
In not so few words
Welcome to the GCC. A geniunely pleasantly light and airy space by day, although one of us found it a bit lacking in atmosphere. And it's a fact airiness does have its dangers in icy January as both of us found what atmosphere there was distinctly lacking in centigrade. Lots of light means lots of windows. Lots of windows means...not a lot of insulation and the Green Cafe risks ending up with blue customers. Which, sadly, duely, bluely happened to the one of us sitting with back to the huge window.
We all know these days that cafe culture partly means...a chance to legally leach a load of wifi time and, for some, a pop at meeting potential partners. So, should this be for dancing, tweet to tweet, or whatever other purpose twitterers, we should point out GCC was heavily biased towards Asuses (Asuss?? Asii??) not Apples in the laptop dept. This might have some bearing on the fact it's almost entirely Spanish not International in the customer and ambience dept. Looking for language practice, love? Might be where the English speaker should aim, as there's not much English grammar in use. Although there might be several English Grammars in Use.
Coffee's fine. Good, actually, as I went up for a second one. It's CcL, cortado or any of the other trad classics you'd expect in a Madrid bar. No South Sudanese Haricot lattes with grated nutmeg here, we must say. But the CcL was notably smoother and creamier than yer bitter-muddy Madrid standard, which is not bad at all when it seems to be Asturian UHT on the ingredients list.
Now, for considered commentary, time to turn to HK, our trusty Carrot Cake Correspondent, regarding said consumed confection;
"The cake is definitely for sharing. All seemed promising as I'd been informed it was homemade and it arrived unspoilt by any unnecessary sugary syrup. The cake itself was carroty, nutmeggy and moist but the proportion of cake and icing was all wrong. The icing was suspiciously smooth and set, as though it contained gelatine, definitely not a traditional ingredient, and not vegetarian-friendly. I've had worse (looking at you Cafe Central, more icing than cake) but this was annoying as the cake itself was quite good."
Aaaand we're back in the room. And still bloody chilly, I can tell you.
All in all, GCC is mixing and matching. Or possibly like us, having its cake and eating it. Its coffee is - slightly polished - old school Madrid. Its cakes and layout are nearer 21st century Malasaña art college. A college collage if you will. And probably if you won't.
There's live music once in a while of an evening, and a different menu after 1200. Cakes are €25 to order a whole one - which'd probably serve 12-16 people.
Nothing wrong with the coffee, acceptable cake, quite a bit of space. It may well be an OK place to chill. If not for the chill.
Basics
Location
http://www.greenclubcafe.com/
Per Person
3 coffees. A shared carrot cake.
€4 each
In not so many words
Hopes?
Decent coffee. Homemade cake.
Reality?
OK coffee, partly successful cake.
First Impressions?
Spacious with nooks and crannies. Window seats. Laptops.
A USP?
USP, USB? Funiculi, funicular? You say potato, I say - a hat stand with a USB port in the top, standing in a corner.
The food in three words?
Today, carrot cake.
Can they get the staff?
One efficient chap.
Service with a smile?
Nothing to complain about. Chatty with the three ladies ahead of me.
Would you take your friends?
Not if they're coffee-trainspotters. We're in trad Cafe con Letch territory, here. No new numbers to be had.
Rating for a dating?
Not fair to try to judge. Needs an evening visit, but those nooks and crannies might give a positive clue.
Tip?
Nope.
If you could change one thing, what would it be?
The Green Club threatened to turn us blue. Put the heating on!
Going back?
There are lots of other options to try.
In not so few words
Welcome to the GCC. A geniunely pleasantly light and airy space by day, although one of us found it a bit lacking in atmosphere. And it's a fact airiness does have its dangers in icy January as both of us found what atmosphere there was distinctly lacking in centigrade. Lots of light means lots of windows. Lots of windows means...not a lot of insulation and the Green Cafe risks ending up with blue customers. Which, sadly, duely, bluely happened to the one of us sitting with back to the huge window.
We all know these days that cafe culture partly means...a chance to legally leach a load of wifi time and, for some, a pop at meeting potential partners. So, should this be for dancing, tweet to tweet, or whatever other purpose twitterers, we should point out GCC was heavily biased towards Asuses (Asuss?? Asii??) not Apples in the laptop dept. This might have some bearing on the fact it's almost entirely Spanish not International in the customer and ambience dept. Looking for language practice, love? Might be where the English speaker should aim, as there's not much English grammar in use. Although there might be several English Grammars in Use.
Coffee's fine. Good, actually, as I went up for a second one. It's CcL, cortado or any of the other trad classics you'd expect in a Madrid bar. No South Sudanese Haricot lattes with grated nutmeg here, we must say. But the CcL was notably smoother and creamier than yer bitter-muddy Madrid standard, which is not bad at all when it seems to be Asturian UHT on the ingredients list.
Now, for considered commentary, time to turn to HK, our trusty Carrot Cake Correspondent, regarding said consumed confection;
"The cake is definitely for sharing. All seemed promising as I'd been informed it was homemade and it arrived unspoilt by any unnecessary sugary syrup. The cake itself was carroty, nutmeggy and moist but the proportion of cake and icing was all wrong. The icing was suspiciously smooth and set, as though it contained gelatine, definitely not a traditional ingredient, and not vegetarian-friendly. I've had worse (looking at you Cafe Central, more icing than cake) but this was annoying as the cake itself was quite good."Aaaand we're back in the room. And still bloody chilly, I can tell you.
All in all, GCC is mixing and matching. Or possibly like us, having its cake and eating it. Its coffee is - slightly polished - old school Madrid. Its cakes and layout are nearer 21st century Malasaña art college. A college collage if you will. And probably if you won't.
There's live music once in a while of an evening, and a different menu after 1200. Cakes are €25 to order a whole one - which'd probably serve 12-16 people.
Nothing wrong with the coffee, acceptable cake, quite a bit of space. It may well be an OK place to chill. If not for the chill.
