20 Feb The Urban Shed review
Everything is for sale but not Billy & Simon – The food scene in Cambridge does surprise me from time to time. Just like last Saturday on my food tour. We had a great party on our Classic Food Tour that day and we were making our way from the historic centre of town to the lesser known parts. King Street is a part of Cambridge, which has to be included on my tours these days as there is a lot happening. It was once a street lined with pubs, but it had a change of scene when many of these had closed down.
Over the last year, we have seen here places come and go. I’m glad to say, that places going are less and new exciting enterprises are opening up. The Cambridge Brew House was the first one and followed by Afternoon tease. Until last Saturday when ‘all of a sudden’ I spotted a new venture. Where did this come from? I was there a day ago and I hadn’t spotted any movements on that site.
I like to be spontaneous on my tours so if I spot something new or stumble across something interesting in the street, then I investigate. So we popped in and found out soon, that the guys behind the Urban Shed had been working through the night. I have to say, we’re stunned once we walked through the door. Our eyes almost popped out of our heads and we looked around pretty stunned. “Well, retro is the word these days’, were Simon’s words. “I have a full barn of all this and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, then I might have it in the barn”.
The Urban Shed is definitely a unique place. It’s a sandwich bar/coffee shop and a nice quiet haven tucked away in the once so vibrant King Street. We were halfway on our tour and the Free Press was calling so we needed to move on, but this would be my lunch spot for the day. Not knowing, that I would have more of my ‘guest of that day in stow. As soon as I stepped through the door around 3.30pm, two of my guests came in too. Before I realised it, they had snapped up the ‘throne’. They made themselves comfortable in the retro airline seats flicking the ashtrays in the armrests up and down sipping a nice cup of coffee. Whilst Billy was making my Panini with smoked salmon, beetroot and mango mascarpone, I had time to find out more about this new venture from Simon.
Both Simon and Billy are local lads and have worked in pubs and restaurants, also having owned some pubs themselves. With this solid background, they decided to open a funky café/shop in the heart of Cambridge. All their food is homemade. Most of the sandwiches are made to order, but if you’re in a rush, then you can grab a sandwich, cake, pie or salad from the self-service counter. All their pies and sausage rolls are made by Simon too.
If you used to head down to King Street for your ground coffee fix, then you might be disappointed these days. The coffee and tea shop closed down on Christmas Eve. No fear though the Urban Shed sells coffee too. They grind the coffee to order.
If you’re planning a dinner party and don’t fancy cooking then you might want to get in touch with them too. They can rustle up a nice fayre as you can see below. Starting from £ 45 depending on the arrangements.
The Urban Shed is definitely a place to try out and you might find yourself browsing through the vinyl’s, lamps and furniture walking away with a good ‘catch’.
Gerla
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