Boston Tea Party - A local mainstay; and for good reason

I don’t drink coffee. Never have, never will. I’ve spent the best part of my working life though learning how to make it and serve it in all of the varied and celebrated fashions, but you will never catch me drinking the fowl and disgusting stuff. Which makes reviewing coffee shops in the city a bit of a challenge.  So if you want to find out about the aromas and subtle flavours of the hot beverages on offer, you better walk on home.

 

Boson Tea Party isn’t just another one of your ‘run of the mill’ coffee shops that are full of sofas and stupidly large arm chairs, pretending to be friendly and cosy, when all the while it’s just a carefully designed, corporate illusion to make you think you’re not just sat in an homogonous, carbon copy, worldwide chain. This place does have real character. A Starbucks or a Costa, for example, would never have such a ridiculously cramped and poorly designed entrance where you queue to place your orders. All you need are half a dozen people waiting for their caffeine fix and it feels like your trying to get to the front of the stage at Glastonbury. This might be because a lot of the cliental look like they’ve just come from the festival at Glastonbury. Situated only a short walk from Exeter College on Queen Street, Boston’s has become one of the major hang outs for those who can’t yet get into more ‘intoxicating’ establishments.

 This would normally put me off. If I wanted to hang around with a bunch of youthful and adolescent teenagers then I would be being investigated by Operation Yewtree. However, the atmosphere when your upstairs in the cavernous Georgian dining hall and the quality of the food will make you put up with the irritating behaviour of some of the patrons.

By now a long standing and well know mainstay of the city Boston Tea Party offers you a great alternative to one of the many chain coffee shops that have multiplied across the town. No matter what time you seem to walk in there is always a melee of activity behind the counter. This is because they make all their meals, sandwiches and cakes fresh, by hand, on the premises.  You have to have a very strong will not to be sucked into buying a piece of cake or brownie that is just sitting there, tempting you, in the counter as you order. Regrettably I do not possess the afore mentioned iron will so have sampled, over the years, rather a lot of their sweet delectations, so I can tell you with some authority that they are delicious.

As for main meals; they serve breakfast all day, which makes them that much more popular for those seeking a good brunch, (plus, this is the only place I’ve ever been to that has Eggy Bread on the menu; genius). You can also grab a burger, various sandwiches, soups and salads all made with free range, locally sourced meat and eggs, as well as bread from the award winning Hobbs House Bakery. They also do a blistering array of teas, unsurprising given the name of the place, including various black, herbal, green and flavoured varieties.

 The unique selling point of the place, as I touched on earlier, is the room upstairs. After escaping the crush of people in the poky downstairs serving area you escape into an echoy, wooden floored hall with a high ceiling and huge windows that let in volumes of natural light. It must cover many of the surrounding shops below. It looks like a room where Victorian children should have been taught ballet. The floor is covered in wooden tables all of different shapes and heights and surrounded by miss-matched chairs that are far more comfortable than they look. But the best thing about this place is the ambience. Even with such a high ceiling it never feels empty or austere. The noise of chatter and laughter reverberate around the room creating a welcoming and comforting mood. It’s always a bit chaotic; with people running around the huge tables in the centre, tripping over stray bags and chair legs, clearing room for the next people to stumble up the stairs into this bustling and convivial environment.

This is why myself, and many others, keep choosing to go back there. There is quite honestly nowhere else like it in Exeter. Sure you might have to put up with sharing a table with some adolescent college kids, but the joy of sitting somewhere unique and special; that isn’t just a copy, of a copy, of a copy, of a coffee house an executive designed because it tested well in a focus group, outweighs this by far. Boston Tea Party is always busy, and the reason it’s always busy is because people want to go there. They could go next door to a big chain, but many don’t. That’s a pretty good sign I think.

Opening Times:

Mon – Sat: 7am – 6pm

Sun: 8am – 6pm

Address:

84 Queen Street

Exeter

EX4 3RP