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7 Coffee shops and a laptop
Before I became self-employed, I used to drive down Kloof Street early in the morning on my way to the office, staring longingly at the inviting coffee shop counters, stacks of glossy magazines and steaming cups of cappuchino – all symbolising to me an abundance of time. To think, meet, read, invent and dream. Or just watch the clouds paint, then change their minds and re-paint Table Mountain again.
When I started my own business, I initially frequented these coffee shops to live out my fantasy, but very soon the passion for my new business and the desire for focus kept me at home, where I am most productive. Except for Thursdays. Thursday mornings my cleaner kicks me out of my city pad and I become a coffee shop exile. Over the past few months, this is how I have experienced a few of Cape Town’s coffee shops – when you actually want to get some work done:
Not exactly a sanctuary of silence, but they cater for laptop workers with plug points and the staff is generally friendly and helpful. On top of it, they probably have the best value-for-money breakfast in town and excellent coffee as well. (I think they source from Origin.) With a Bloody Mary as the first item on the breakfast menu, Beleza is perhaps not suitable for meetings with more sober clients. Unfortunately, they don’t cater for early birds either and open after 9am only.
This church-run deli takes me back to my small-town years when bazaar tannies spoke to me in diminutives and every cupboard seemed choc-a-block with home-made preserves. They’ve really made an effort to create a peaceful, water-featured patio protected from street noise. Inside, there’s only one plug point which is a bit clumsy, and your laptop cable could easily trip someone heading for the preserves shelf. But they’ve got great food, if you like fresh, healthy produce. And I keep on going back for my favourite coffee brand, Limu – of which they also sell the roasted beans.
Melissa’s Food Shop, Kloof Street
Melissa’s remains a firm favourite. Their service can be slow some days, but then they also don’t mind if you hog their space for a few hours without ordering much more than coffee. Not that you can work for more than your laptop battery time, as there are no plug points for customers. This is a good spot to meet clients, suppliers or colleagues. Even though there’s not much privacy, everybody else is too busy with their own meetings to bother with yours. Don’t leave without one of their perfectly brewed pots of tea or their Nutella laced hot chocolate. Healthy, tasty lunches too.
Origin Coffee Roasting, Hudson Street
A place of worship for coffee lovers – you have to experience this space at least once. Unfortunately, I could not pick up an i-Burst signal here, but friendly and engaging staff tailed me with my double espresso in my quest to find one. Perhaps better for lively meetings than solitary slogging away at your computer.
This petite, organic coffee shop close to Parliament can easily accommodate up to four laptop users. Their breakfasts arrive in generous portions and the French-speaking waiters are friendly, but let you get on with your work. Due to the size of the space and not enough white noise, Sage is not ideal for business meetings.
The Wellness Warehouse, Kloof Street
After surviving the growing pains of its first year, the Wellness Warehouse has managed to create a serene enough spot in the middle of buzzing Kloof Street. The space works well for meetings, as well as solitary work, and there is a laptop counter with power points for about five people. This is also a convenient place to recycle your home office paper – bonus.
This particular outlet is great for take-away coffee or checking out customers from the surrounding film and other interesting industries. But you don’t really expect some quiet time from a brand built around lively staff chatter and loudly broadcasted orders, do you?
Tags: Beleza, Cape Town, coffee shops, Deli55, laptop, Melissa's Food Shop, mobile office space, nomadic worker, Origin Coffee Roasting, Sage organic, The Wellness Warehouse, Vida e Caffe
If you sit at the table right next to the espresso machine and have just an average lenght power cable, Melissa’s will plug your laptop in for you.
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A Dell notebook (laptop) may be quite an acquisition for somebody interested in computers and in need of one that is light and thin, therefore extremely portable……
*edit* this was not supposed to be a full review – just a heads up so you know about the firewire issue (and the impact it may have on you directly) before you purchase it. it seems now this issue is widely known anyway, but i think at least here you can decide for yourself as to whether it is the be all and end all or just another feature that would have been cool if it was left in. also note this mac’s hard drive is insanely easy to replace, so if your drive was on it’s way out, you could replace it, reinstall the os, and put your failing hdd into a usb enclosure (which could cost the same as a firewire cable) to attempt to recover data. i also put in another paragraph or two at the end on other first impressions.
the only thing i would like to add to the the current reviews is that the firewire port was dropped on the macbook models (not the pros though). this is the only thing that worries me because of the inability for the computer to take advantage of target disk mode. you may never have used it before, but it’s one of those features that set apart macs from everything else. booting the mac holding the letter ‘t’ will make it boot to target disk (a large firewire symbol will float on the screen). then connecting to another mac with a firewire cable will make it show up on the other mac’s desktop just like any external drive would. this is perfect for transferring files quickly and easily, also a great troubleshooting step if the mac will not boot, as it may boot to target disk, allowing you to recover files to another mac before replacing the hard drive if it’s on it’s way out – it may not boot normally, but may boot to target disk (note, if the mac will not boot but you are sure it’s not a hardware issue, you can just do an archive and install, reinstalling your operating system while keeping your files).
another reason many people have used it is for account migrating if upgrading from another mac. migration assistant now uses ethernet, so you are still set here.
if you own a camcorder – please make sure it supports usb 2.0, too, unless you are in the market for a new one of those too.
oh – and i have a feeling all this firewire business might have something to do with usb 3.0 – which it looks like we will be seeing crop up in devices next year.
just wanted to make sure you are aware of this before you make your decision!
ok, so the ‘another paragraph or two on other first impressions’ – firstly, don’t think that anyone could give you a reasonable review of a product that just came out a few days ago. customer reviews are by far the most important thing i look at when deciding to buy something, but please bear in mind that you don’t have the awesome posts by people who have actually owned the product more than five minutes yet. anyway – so the screen – personally i like it, and yes, sometimes i can see the light fixture’s reflection behind me when i’m powering up. the blacks also look a little faded as per some reviews, but then again, the screen border is jet black, and i wonder if that makes it appear worse than it actually is. also, when looking at an angle, mine looks ok left to right – even at the tightest angle, although not so much if i am looking at the screen from above. i say ‘ok’ because it’s not perfect (colours seem to darken a little), but then again, i’m really not going to be watching a movie from 10 feet away at a 45 degree angle on a 13.3 inch screen. but that’s just me – it’s the way i roll, evidently.
i’d recommend trying it out if you can at an apple store – see for yourself, understand that people can be really upset if they spend a lot of money and it doesn’t work as *perfectly* as they expect it to, and that also the opposite is true – that people need their decisions reinforced and may tend to leave shinier than normal reviews. my own 5 star rating? four for the product and an extra one as it’s apple makes five. honestly though i love it but there could be improvements. the pronounced edges make my wrists a little sore. also it’s about getting used to a smaller screen than my last notebook had (not apple’s fault, but i am sure many people might have this issue). no firewire may suck in the future, but right now it’s not an issue. deciding how to replace roboform with something mac compatible is my biggest nightmare (again that’s not on apple).
that’s it! hope it helps!
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