The opening of a new ethical takeaway coffee shop in the heart of Crookes seen “absolutely amazing business” thanks to student support.
Jordan O’shea and Elle Bown are the co-owners of the new ‘Queen of The Suburbs’ takeaway coffee, located at the top of the infamously steep Conduit Road.
The vision of the owners is for it to be a relief when you make it to the top and see the shop and think “thank god there’s coffee”.
Jordan, 30, is also the owner of Whale Town Coffee Company, another coffee shop in Crookes which opened in 2018 . The company is centred around ethical trading, friendliness and great quality which he has carried on throughout the opening of his new venture.
Elle Bown, 31, was a barista at Whale Town where she worked with Jordan before the move, but said she always dreamed of running her own shop.
Inside the shop via @queenofthesuburbscoffee on instagram
Both Elle and Jordan were shocked by the amount of students coming into the shop and buying coffee despite the slightly more expensive prices. The hope is that people will understand that with good and ethical coffee comes a higher price. They have noticed a big shift in how many students and young people would chose to have ethical coffee over big branded chain coffee despite prices.
Jordan says “Its clear people are changing and want to be more ethical when buying coffee” and he hopes they can be the centre of the movement. He says “Students are people who’ve grown up being more ethically considerate from day one and it helps this is a student heavy area”
The shop’s décor is based on coffee shops that Jordan has been in and grew up in around West London. Despite the shop being too small for indoor seating, they hope that in the future they will be able to put chairs and tables outside the shop and adapt to cooler and more refreshing drink for the summer, as well as selling more products like branded mugs as the business continues to grow within the student and local community.
Their Instagram is linked below;