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ago and is now a humming hotbed of coffee aficionados all week long, or its newer opening on Trumpington Street, fuelling passing engineering students and Fitzwilliam Museum visitors alike with precisely the correct amount of caffeine to get through their days. But like most successful businesses in Cambridge, space became a challenge. “Trumpington Street was originally a platform to showcase our coffee roaster,” Simon explains, “but we never anticipated it being as busy as it was.” The second branch quickly became hugely popular for both its coffee and food offering, which only increased when Simon recruited chef Adam Wilkinson to overhaul the cafes’ menus. Trying to roast coffee and toast sourdough in the same small space proved something of a challenge – “so that’s when we moved the roastery out to Stapleford,” Simon explains. “And now we’ve outgrown there: that’s the nature of it. It’s been a naturally evolving business. So now... we’re into a site where we can hopefully do everything together,” he grins. Presenting the Hot Numbers Roastery at Wrights Mowers, the newest addition to Simon’s portfolio that promises to become a real destination for Cambridge food lovers. Located south-west of the city just off the A10, an old warehouse is busily being transformed into a two- storey light-flooded cathedral of coffee that’s guaranteed to attract pilgrims seeking the perfect pour-over.
Simon first met the roastery’s neighbour John Wright while out riding his old Sunbeam motorbike. “John said: ‘Oh, I’ve got a collection of bikes – would you like to come and see?’ – so we went to his house, we had a cup of tea and he showed me around,” Simon explains. “Later, I asked him if he knew of any space for the coffee roasters, as we had to move from Stapleford – and he said, ‘Well, I’ve got this whole building: you could have a portion of it.’” Though the warehouse was a lot larger than Simon and his team had first anticipated, they summoned up the courage to take the whole space, in order to make the roastery as light as possible, and build a cafe around their production unit. “We took the floors out there,” Simon gestures upwards, to the two- storey space that drenches the central bar
ometimes in life, if you want something to exist, you have to knuckle down and make it yourself. Hot Numbers in Cambridge is the epitome of this creative philosophy: eight years ago, founder Simon Fraser couldn’t find anywhere to buy decent coffee, so set about creating his own, roasting and grinding beans that he’d personally sourced to ensure perfection with every sip. “I had a vision but it was very much in my head and not on an architects’ sketchpad,” explains Simon. “I just needed to realise my passion for coffee and engineering in one space, and let it evolve naturally, embracing the mistakes that come with planning a coffee shop with a blank canvas for the first time with minimal help and little finance in place.” Chances are that if you drink coffee and live in our city, then you’ve already been to one of Hot Numbers’ two sites. Either the original branch in Dales Brewery on Gwydir Street, which sprawled into the next-door art gallery several years
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