Intermezzo

Coffees: Americano, Espresso, Ristretto, Latte, Cappuccino, Mocha.
Food: Paninis, Piadina, Pastries, Olives, Biscotti.

Where: Pilgrim Street

Like many other of Newcastle’s independent coffee shops, Intermezzo benefits from its location.

The café is neighbours with the Tyneside Cinema, a Newcastle institution, the Tyneside is the city’s most popular independent cinema and keeps Intermezzo busy with cinema-goers having a coffee before or a cocktail after watching the latest independent or international release.

Intermezzo is also a café which manages to transform itself throughout the day, supplying commuters into the city with their early morning dose of espresso, playing host to those who use the café as a place work, read or relax during the day time and then becoming a down-tempo cocktail bar in the evening.

Part of what makes Intermezzo such a popular inner city destination is the buzz which surrounds it. This is due almost entirely to its fiercely dedicated cast of regulars.

The café attracts a uniquely international crowd, regulars can often be heard speaking Italian, Spanish and even Romanian whilst enjoying a coffee and a cigarette outside sitting at one of the metallic tables which line the alleyway in which the café is set.

The distinctively European feel which intermezzo has managed to create is one of the driving forces behind its customer base, its coffee is imported from Italy, it serves piadina style sandwiches, Italian antipasto and it is staffed by people from all over the world who are ready to converse with customers in a variety of tongues.

Intermezzo is has become as much of a Newcastle staple as the cinema which neighbours it, partly because of the location, partly because of its great coffee but mainly because when you’re there you feel like you could be anywhere in the world.

Callum Mcglade

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