Coffee Stops: Rockets & Rascals, Plymouth

I have always believed coffee tastes better when it’s made by someone who loves it. Never has this rung more true than when visiting Rockets and Rascals. ​​​​​​​​​Plymouth is a town which always feels like the rest of this country is just about to discover it, like it’s just about to be seen as somewhere great. I moved away last year and am now used to hearing the sarcastic ‘I’m sorry’ when I tell people where I’m from. While part of me jumps to defend the city which raised me, another part of me feels like I get to keep Plymouth as my little secret, somewhere the snobbery, or classism, of my peers from elsewhere, usually London, keeps them from enjoying. I think to myself, I bet they can’t swim. I imagine what it must have been like to not be able to simply see the ocean, perhaps it is their inability to view the expansive blue of opportunity, discovery, which keeps them so close minded. Sometimes it feels like I come from the doorway to everything else. 

Sit inside for great light on a Spring/Autumn Day

​Rockets and Rascals is powered by Plymouth. Home-grown in their menu, staff and custom, the pride the place has for its roots is impossible to ignore. I often think coffee shops are some of the most human places on this planet, I grew up in this one and have watched lots of the same people come in for 12 years, single men who used to just chat to my Dad now come in with their wives and babies, little kids who used to hide under tables are now sitting exams and ordering iced vanilla lattes. I think one of the most interesting things about Rockets is its successful subversion of the homogenous millennial coffee shop epidemic. Don’t get me wrong, mustached, tattooed, oat flat white-drinking, thirty year old men can be spotted from time to time: ordering avocado toast and remaining, notably, off the property ladder, but Rockets isn’t just a location to tag on Instagram, it’s where they might take the love of their life someday, not necessarily someday special, maybe just a Sunday morning where they’re both too hungover to wear jeans and just want some breakfast made fresh by someone who’s proud of it, but I think that’s one of the best things about Rockets, it’s a special place for non-special people on non-special days. 

​Rockets started as a way to bring bike lovers from across the city together. It still has some bikes, but brings together all different kinds of people today. From families sharing a table for lunch or designers meeting their clients for coffee, it's where ideas are born. It’s not unusual to see tourists wander in, fresh off the ferry, and then leave 2 hours later, full of salad or sandwiches and excited about the rest of their time in Plymouth, probably with a suggested itinerary from the staff member serving them. From uni students making the most of their uni city, to the ones returning home for the summer, all the way to born and bred janners with janner kids of their own, the staff are united in their love for great coffee, great food and great conversation. They love this place, and they want you to love it too.

Because this is, technically, the food and drink section, I’ll get into the technicalities: sit outside, weather permitting, if it’s after 12pm, get the slow roast sandwich. If it’s early, get the sprinters or the climbers breakfast, everyone deserves a full english- even vegetarians. At any, and all, times, get a flat white, oat or cow, and then get another after you’ve eaten. It’ll be the best you’ve ever had, I promise.