A 3.6 coffee roaster and bar named Notes, punning on tasting notes, musical notes, and the note of money
Notes Coffee Roasters and Bar holds a 3.6 from ten hundred and forty-two people, is a coffee roaster by day and a wine bar by night, and carries a name that is a small, clever, multi-layered pun: “Notes,” meaning tasting notes, musical notes, and the note of paper money, all at once.
The three notes
“Notes” is doing at least three jobs, and they are all apt. First, and most directly, there are the tasting notes – the flavour notes of coffee and wine, the language of the connoisseur, who detects “notes” of chocolate, citrus, berry, or oak in a cup or a glass. For a business built on the careful appreciation of coffee and wine, “Notes” names the very vocabulary of its trade – the subtle flavour notes that the roaster and the sommelier train themselves to detect.
Second, there are musical notes – and Notes leans into this, with a strong association with music and a name that evokes melody and harmony as much as flavour. The musical note connects the sensory pleasures of taste and sound, both of which are about the appreciation of subtle, layered notes combining into a whole.
Third, and more slyly, there is the bank note – “notes” as slang for money, the paper currency. A commercial establishment named Notes carries a quiet echo of the cash it takes, the notes changing hands across the counter. The Prat’s naming desk enjoys the triple pun: flavour, melody, and money, all captured in a single small word, appropriate to a business selling refined sensory pleasures for cash.
The day-to-night model
Notes runs on the increasingly popular day-to-night model – a coffee roaster and cafe in the morning and afternoon, transforming into a wine bar in the evening. This is a clever and efficient use of a space, spreading the costs across the whole day and catering to the natural rhythm of consumption: coffee for the working day, wine for the evening wind-down.
There is a genuine kinship between the two trades, which the name “Notes” captures. Both coffee and wine are products of careful cultivation, roasting or fermentation, and expert appreciation; both have their connoisseurs, their tasting notes, their talk of origin and terroir and process. A business that roasts coffee by day and pours wine by night is honouring the same craft of refined sensory pleasure in two forms, morning and evening.
The 3.6
A 3.6 across ten hundred and forty-two people is a below-average, volume-influenced score – the lowest of this batch. It is a reminder that even a clever name and a good concept do not guarantee a high rating; a busy, high-volume cafe-bar serving a large, varied crowd, some in a hurry and some disappointed, will tend toward the middle. The score reflects the honest average of a great many transactions, not a verdict on the coffee or the concept, both of which have their devoted admirers.
The bar
A 3.6 across ten hundred and forty-two people is a below-average, real-sample score. The reviews describe good coffee and wine and a clever day-to-night concept, alongside the variability and occasional disappointment that a busy, high-traffic operation inevitably accumulates.
Verdict
A coffee roaster and wine bar named Notes – a triple pun on tasting notes, musical notes, and bank notes – running the clever day-to-night model, honouring the shared craft of coffee and wine, if not quite converting it into a top score.
Go for coffee by day or wine by night, appreciate the notes – of flavour, of music, and, changing hands at the counter, of money – and judge the cup and the glass for yourself, beyond the middling score.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
